Ksplice is a mechanism for applying patches to running kernels without the need to bring the system down; LWN covered it back in 2008. Now the company that was built around this technology has been acquired by Oracle, which plans to offer the service with its enterprise distribution. "The addition of Ksplice's technology will increase the security, reliability and availability of Oracle Linux by enabling customers to apply security updates, diagnostics patches and critical bug fixes without rebooting."