The CIQ portal lets organizations access, evaluate and deploy the full CIQ product portfolio on their own terms, from a startup’s first Rocky Linux instance to an enterprise team evaluating RLC Pro or its variants at scale.
RENO, Nev., March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CIQ, the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux, today announced the launch of the CIQ portal (portal.ciq.com), so any organization can access, evaluate and deploy CIQ software on their own terms. A free account is all it takes to get started.
As organizations scale their use of Enterprise Linux for AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and production infrastructure, the ability to manage software deployments, and access credentials and team permissions from a centralized platform becomes essential. Until now, much of that work required direct engagement with CIQ sales or support.
Portal changes that by putting control directly in the hands of users and administrators with a developer license, free license or trial license. Organizations can now browse, download and deploy the full CIQ product portfolio directly, and manage their licenses, credentials and team permissions without touching a sales process. Free software is available the moment you create an account. Commercial products are accessible the moment a subscription is active.
“Portal represents a fundamental shift in how organizations interact with CIQ,” said Gregory Kurtzer, CEO of CIQ and founder of Rocky Linux. “We built it so that anyone, from a startup deploying their first Rocky Linux instance to an enterprise managing thousands of nodes, to a community member or hobbyist, can get started with CIQ products on their own terms, without friction and without waiting.”
Software available through the CIQ portal
The CIQ portal provides access to the complete CIQ product portfolio, including:
- RLC+ (Rocky Linux from CIQ). The free, fully supported Rocky Linux distribution from CIQ, available with hardware-optimized variants for select infrastructure. RLC+ NVIDIA ships with the complete NVIDIA AI and networking stack pre-integrated, including CUDA Toolkit and DOCA-OFED, so GPU-accelerated workloads, AI training, HPC simulation and data analytics run from first boot with no manual driver or toolkit setup. Additional hardware partner variants are in development. All RLC+ tiers are available at no cost.
- RLC Pro. CIQ’s commercial Enterprise Linux subscription, with Long-Term Support, FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography, direct CIQ bug fixes and committed CVE response timelines bundled as standard. Built for enterprises that need a stable, accountable foundation across development, production and regulated environments. Also available as a developer license.
- RLC Pro Hardened. Enterprise Linux optimized for security-critical environments. Ships with Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG) for real-time kernel integrity monitoring, pre-hardened images for DISA STIG and CIS frameworks, FIPS 140-3 compliant cryptographic modules including post-quantum algorithms, and automated compliance tooling.
- RLC Pro AI. Enterprise Linux built for AI and HPC infrastructure. Ships with the CIQ Linux Kernel (CLK), the full NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit and DOCA-OFED stack, and popular ML frameworks pre-validated together. Production-ready for AI inference from first boot on bare-metal and major cloud platforms. Also available as a developer license.
- CIQ Bridge. Extended support for organizations still running CentOS 7. Delivers ongoing CVE remediation, security-patched packages and repository access to keep CentOS 7 environments secure while migration planning proceeds.
- Ascender Pro. CIQ’s IT automation platform, purpose-built for enterprises managing large-scale Linux infrastructure. A direct alternative to Ansible Automation Platform for organizations managing compliance, configuration and deployment at scale.
- Warewulf Pro. Cluster provisioning software for HPC and enterprise environments. Deploys and manages diskless node clusters at scale, with commercial support and tooling for large-scale bare-metal management.
- Fuzzball. CIQ’s workflow orchestration platform for high-performance computing and AI. Unifies model training, fine-tuning and inference in single portable workflows that run identically on-premises, in the cloud or across hybrid environments.
- Apptainer. The leading container system for HPC. Enables secure, portable, reproducible scientific and AI workloads in shared computing environments without requiring root privileges.
The CIQ portal provides:
- A direct path to every CIQ solution. Browse and download ISOs, images, container images and packages without engaging sales. Evaluation happens on your timeline.
- Centralized license and credential management. View active licenses and manage your access token from one place.
- Organization and team management. Invite team members, assign roles and manage permissions across commercial products from a single interface.
- Flexible deployment options. Direct browser downloads, curl and wget, repository mirroring with rsync and reposync, and the CIQ Depot Client for automated configuration.
- Documentation and support built-in. Product-specific guides, installation instructions and direct access to CIQ support are integrated into the portal experience.
“The portal is designed to scale with our customers,” said Bjorn Hovland, president of CIQ. “For smaller organizations, it eliminates the overhead of a traditional sales process. For enterprises, it gives teams immediate access to the products and credentials they need without bottlenecks. The result is faster deployments and broader adoption of CIQ products across the board.”
The CIQ portal is available now at portal.ciq.com. All existing CIQ customers can log in immediately. New users can create a personal account to access free CIQ software, including Rocky Linux from CIQ (RLC+), and explore the full product portfolio.
About CIQ
CIQ is the founding support and services partner of Rocky Linux and the leader in Enterprise Linux architecture for sovereign AI inferencing at scale. CIQ delivers a complete software infrastructure stack, from the operating system to orchestration, enabling enterprises, government agencies, research institutions and supercomputing centers worldwide to deploy AI and high-performance computing workloads with strategic independence and control. CIQ’s product portfolio includes the Rocky Linux from CIQ Pro (RLC Pro) family of enterprise operating systems, Ascender Pro for IT automation, Fuzzball for cloud HPC orchestration, Warewulf Pro for cluster provisioning and Apptainer, the leading container system for high-performance computing. Together, these products provide the secure, performant infrastructure foundation that modern AI deployments demand.
For more information, visit ciq.com.
Media Contact:
Cristin Connelly
Cathey Communications for CIQ
cristin@cathey.co
SOURCE CIQ