Red Hat wants to make sure it addresses all the cloud security issues that it can, so it’s started a program to certify that its software runs safely in the cloud.

The details of exactly what Red Hat’s program covers won’t be made public until next month, but they include certifying cloud providers as being set to handle its enterprise Linux and JBoss products in a secure fashion.

That means that the software can be installed in cloud environments easily so it is done properly and avoids vulnerabilities. This goal will be accomplished through a partner program that also includes independent software vendors that might write applications to run on the Red Hat platforms.

Another intent of the program is to coordinate with cloud service providers to offer support using a cloud-like pricing scale. So if a customer buys computing resources from a cloud provider for a month and runs Red Hat Linux on the hardware, Red Hat would offer support on a short-term basis that matches the term of the cloud use.

Red Hat calls its certification the Premier Cloud Provider Program, and so far Amazon Web Services is the only one Red Hat acknowledges as having its certification, but it says that next month it will announce other providers that have earned it.

This type of certification assures that specific applications running on a specific operating system running in a particular provider’s cloud will run reliably and safely. While it won’t address all security and reliability concerns, it can relieve customers of some of their worries.

Tim Greene is senior editor at Network World.