Red Hat (RHT) on Monday said customers can now shift eligible Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions to Google (GOOG) Compute Engine using Red Hat Cloud Access.

To do this, end customers must first sign up through Red Hat’s Cloud Access registration process. They can then move their own images using tools and documentation provided by Google.

There is also documentation on moving and modifying images to Google Compute Engine for developers, Red Hat said.

Red Hat Cloud Product Director of Strategy Mike Ferris said Cloud Access provides “additional opportunities for our channel partners to engage with customers.

“Distribution, resale, and value-add partners of Red Hat are able to participate and service their customers in the public cloud without modifying any relationships with Red Hat or the customers,” he said.

He added: “As an example, partners who service customers on-premise are now able to extend those relationships to a cloud-access enabled public cloud without any changes to the business, support, or technical models.”

Google became the second Red Hat Certified Cloud Provider to be designated as a Red Hat Cloud Access-enabled partner, trailing only Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Separately, Red Hat hired D. Robert Martin as its channel chief to develop and execute its North America channel strategy and partner sales.

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