After a year of beta testing, Red Hat has finally launched CloudForms, its hybrid cloud management software.

Enterprise and government customers interested in cloud computing are likely to have already invested in IT infrastructure, so rather than reinvent the wheel, CloudForms is designed to allow users to integrate their existing resources, the open source software company says.

The tool uses application blueprints to allow programs to be moved across VMware, Amazon Web Services or Red Hat's own cloud platform. As well, the service allows customers to incorporate products from multiple vendors, all manageable from a self-service portal and management tools.

"With CloudForms, you can build a hybrid cloud that encompasses all of your infrastructure, and you can manage your cloud applications without vendor lock-in," the company says, echoing a core open source and open standards principle.

"We recognize that for a complete open hybrid cloud, enterprises need more than just the management layer - they also need openness and portability across compute, data/services, programming models and applications," said Red Hat chief technology officer and vice president of worldwide engineering Brian Stevens.

CloudForms is built on Apache DeltaCloud, an open source project initiated by Red Hat.