Adfinis wins Red Hat OpenShift certification for Secretz Enterprise

Adfinis has secured Red Hat OpenShift certification for Secretz Enterprise, placing the secrets management product in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog.

The certification gives Red Hat's container platform users a validated way to deploy Secretz Enterprise through Helm charts and container images. Based on OpenBao, the Linux Foundation-managed open source fork of Vault, Secretz Enterprise is designed to manage application secrets and machine identities.

For Adfinis, the certification strengthens a partnership with Red Hat that has developed over more than a decade. It also raises OpenBao's profile within the Red Hat software ecosystem. Adfinis co-maintains the project and follows an upstream-first development model.

Secretz Enterprise is aimed at DevOps and security engineering teams running containerised workloads, including microservices and containerised virtual machines. The certification confirms compatibility with Red Hat OpenShift and lets operators find and deploy the software directly from the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog, including in air-gapped and offline environments.

Deployment focus

Adfinis positioned the certification around practical challenges for organisations handling sensitive data as they expand digital operations. These include controlling access to secrets, managing machine identities, and meeting regulatory requirements without relying on custom scripts or bespoke deployment work.

The Red Hat software certification process could also reduce the burden of internal security assessments for companies operating under strict data sovereignty and compliance rules. Using a certified open source product on OpenShift may make it easier to map controls to existing governance processes.

Secretz Enterprise is sold as a subscription that includes support and software assurance for OpenBao. Adfinis uses a flat-fee pricing model rather than charging by identity or client, which it says avoids lock-in and allows users to end the subscription without migrating away from the underlying software base.

For the OpenBao community, changes made through the certification effort are intended to flow back into the upstream project. Adfinis plays a prominent role in the project, with Chief Technology Officer Michael Hofer serving as Chair of the OpenBao Technical Steering Committee.

OpenBao emerged as an open source, community-led fork of Vault and is used to secure API keys, passwords and certificates. It provides authentication, authorisation and audit functions for managing access to sensitive data through a user interface, command-line tools and APIs.

Executive comments

Hofer said the certification was aimed at customers operating in tightly controlled environments.

"Red Hat OpenShift certification validates Secretz Enterprise's production readiness for demanding and regulated enterprise environments. By introducing Secretz Enterprise based on OpenBao into the Red Hat ecosystem, we are giving organizations an enterprise-grade, certified path to tightly control and protect their most critical data assets."

Red Hat linked the certification to its long relationship with Adfinis and to the role of open source collaboration in building security tools for enterprise users.

"Protecting sensitive corporate data shouldn't become a roadblock as an organization grows. Red Hat's long-standing collaboration with Adfinis underscores our shared belief that the most resilient security solutions are community-driven and transparent. By achieving Red Hat OpenShift certification, Secretz Enterprise gives enterprise DevOps and security teams a thoroughly verified, identity-based secrets management system that runs natively and reliably across their trusted OpenShift environments."

Adfinis operates in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Egypt, and focuses on open source IT services across consulting, engineering and managed services. Its work with Secretz Enterprise is part of a broader effort to offer secrets management across cloud-native and hybrid cloud environments.

The certification is already in effect and is described as a permanent standard.