Fact vs. Fiction: 10 Things You May Not Know About CIQ

If you’re familiar with CIQ, you know that we’ve been making waves in the tech industry as the company supporting cutting-edge software infrastructure solutions. From Rocky Linux, the fastest-growing Enterprise Linux distribution, to Fuzzball, the next generation of High Performance Computing (HPC), we continually strive to innovate with both our technology and service offerings as well as our industry partnerships. But as with any rising innovator, there are often misconceptions that accompany fast growth. In this blog post, we'll set the record straight about some of these misconceptions, and highlight lesser-known facts about CIQ.

First, let’s start with the facts.

FACT: CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux.

Rocky Linux is an open source enterprise Linux distribution that provides a reliable and stable operating system for a variety of sectors, including enterprise, artificial intelligence, machine learning, simulation, and HPC. It was created by one of the original CentOS founders, Gregory Kurtzer, to achieve the original goals of CentOS as a production-ready downstream version of RHEL. It is hosted by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF). As the official founding support and services partner for the Rocky Linux project and the RESF, CIQ plays a significant role in maintaining and promoting the CentOS successor. CIQ is here to guarantee the success and longevity of Rocky Linux with services and support as well as additional enhancements and value adds available to customers.

FACT: CIQ promotes open source technology.

We believe that open source is a development and community model around software and sharing for the greater benefit, not a marketing switch to be enabled or disabled based on corporate and business needs. When we create and take part in open source communities, we choose not to own or control those projects, but rather to put them outside of the corporate umbrella of CIQ with true community leadership and management. CIQ then becomes a contributor to those projects rather than trying to hold them hostage. This is why projects like Rocky Linux, Apptainer (formerly Singularity), and Warewulf are all independent projects, and one of the reasons we helped to create and now support the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF). By truly supporting and fostering the development of open source projects, CIQ contributes to a collaborative ecosystem that drives innovation and benefits the entire tech community and we wish to partner with other open source supporting companies with a similar vision.

FACT: CIQ focuses on security and stability.

Rocky Linux was created with stability as one of its primary objectives. The development team behind the operating system has been careful to verify that every aspect of the system is thoroughly tested and vetted before release. This includes the selection of packages, the development of tools and utilities, and the overall architecture of the system. The result is a highly reliable and stable Linux distribution that is ideal for use in production environments. Security is also a critical aspect of any operating system, and Rocky Linux has taken several measures to ensure that users have a secure and reliable platform. From package validation, to SBOM transparency and verification, Rocky Linux is designed to receive regular updates and security patches, which means that the operating system is secure and stable at all times. 

FACT: CIQ is powering the next generation of software infrastructure.

CIQ leverages capabilities from enterprise, cloud, hyperscale, and HPC. From the base operating system, through containers, orchestration, provisioning, computing, and up to cloud applications, CIQ works with every part of the technology stack to drive solutions for customers and communities with stable, scalable, and secure production environments. By working on various levels of the technology stack, we are actively contributing to advancements in enterprise, cloud, and High Performance Computing (HPC). Our expertise in these fields allows us to offer powerful solutions that benefit a wide range of industries and applications.

FACT: CIQ provides containerization and orchestration solutions.

We understand the importance of containerization and orchestration in modern software development. We offer solutions such as Apptainer that help organizations manage and deploy containers efficiently, streamlining the development process and ensuring optimal resource utilization. Our solutions leverage, enhance, and support Kubernetes, providing the best-in-class aspects of cloud, hyperscale, enterprise, and High Performance Computing (HPC).

FACT: CIQ supports hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

CIQ's software infrastructure solutions are designed to accommodate on-prem, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. This flexibility ensures that organizations can leverage the best features of all the cloud platforms while maintaining control and security across a multi-faceted hybrid infrastructure. CIQ has joined forces with multiple cloud partners, including AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, to offer Rocky Linux users a range of options.

Now, let’s address some misconceptions:

**FICTION: Rocky Linux belongs to CIQ.**No. Neither the RESF nor the open source projects CIQ supports and maintains are beholden to CIQ or any single company.

What makes a successful open source project isn’t having a single individual behind it, nor is it having a massive company behind it. A successful open source project has a diverse group of people and companies managing it collectively, which has been our goal from the beginning. CIQ does not have special control or access over Rocky Linux or the RESF. CIQ does not directly control any decisions, Boards, resources, secure keys, boot shims, domain names, or infrastructure; that has been all 100% within the community from day one, right where it always belongs. 

Rocky Linux will always stay in the community. 

FICTION: CIQ only focuses on traditional IT infrastructure.

CIQ's expertise extends way beyond traditional IT infrastructure. We also work on modern cloud, hyperscale, High Performance Computing (HPC), and edge computing technologies, staying at the forefront of the evolving software infrastructure landscape.

FICTION: CIQ's primary focus is cost reduction.

While our solutions absolutely help organizations dramatically reduce their infrastructure costs, our primary focus is on delivering stable, scalable, and secure production environments. By providing reliable and efficient software infrastructure solutions, we help organizations achieve better performance, security, and overall stability that is less expensive but more effective.

FICTION: CIQ is solely a software company.

Although CIQ specializes in software infrastructure solutions, our goal is to add value on top of Rocky Linux and other key open source technologies in the form of escalation support, customization, optimization, integration, education, and professional services. Our offerings come in various shapes and sizes designed to help people and teams meet and surpass their goals and expectations. Our expert support team brings over 500 person-years of Linux and open source development and infrastructure experience to help customers tackle the most demanding deployments. 

At CIQ, our commitment to staying at the forefront of the evolving software infrastructure landscape ensures that you can capitalize on the latest technological advancements. In fact, we’ve got some major announcements coming down the pipeline that we’re sure you’ll be excited about. With CIQ as your partner, you can be confident that your software infrastructure is optimized for the demands of a rapidly changing technological landscape. 

Reach out to us to join us on this journey!