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fast-moving open source software available,
Intelligent CIO is curious to learn more about
Red Hat’s approach.
Red Hat’s role is to make open source
software consumable for the enterprise:
“Our solutions maintain the benefits of
community open source while simplifying
operations and making it accessible. Red
Hat builds on the community version by
creating an enterprise-grade version. We
secure it, stabilise it, provide support in
deploying and managing it, help with
integrating it into your business and
constantly update it over the course
of its lifecycle. We also bring a partner
ecosystem of products and services tested,
supported and certified to perform with
Red Hat technologies.”
For example, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is
an enterprise-grade version of the Linux
operating system and Red Hat OpenShift is
an enterprise Kubernetes platform. Werner
elaborated: “Our business model is to add
value to the free, open source technologies.
“Our version of Linux is certified by IBM,
HP, Dell, Fujitsu and all the hardware
manufacturers, SAP, Oracle and other
software companies.” This means that
Red Hat will ensure the software remains
compatible with your technology stack, is
secure and keeps pace with the demands of
the modern business.
hybrid environment. This means your cloud
foundations are not stuck with one vendor.
Organisations gain the freedom to choose to
use the software best suited to their needs at
any given time.
The Red Hat approach
Open source communities are clearly the
lifeblood of the open source world and
the software that is created from them
such as Linux, OpenStack, or the container
management platform, Kubernetes, created
by Google, is usable by anyone free of
charge. With so much free, innovative and
www.intelligentcio.com
Red Hat is an extremely active member of
the open source community. For example,
in the container management field, Red
Hat is the next largest contributor to
Kubernetes after the inventors; Google.
According to GitHub’s 2018 State of the
Octoverse, Red Hat employees were the
third largest contributor to open source
projects on Github.
People are one of the most important parts
of making your open source transformation
work. Whether working from within a
business, or as part of a community, Knoblich
believes that many of the best developers
work in open source because of the flexibility
and empowerment it gives them. “If you
want the best coding talent, you need to be
open source,” Knoblich said. It’s no wonder
then, that Linux has become the number
one development platform in the world,
overtaking Microsoft.
Open source: A solid foundation
Red Hat also proves its leadership in the
open source community by offering a
consultative approach for enterprises around
building a more ‘open culture’ and ‘open
organisation’. This means sharing best
practice on not only the technology and
tools, but also the processes and mindset
that can support businesses’ specific goals.
For example, looking at how and where to
adopt a ‘fail fast and fail often’ approach to
speeding up innovation, allowing for rapid
successive iterations and improvements. Red
Hat’s Open Innovation Labs exist to help
teams adopt open source ways of working
such as reducing top-down leadership
structures and being driven by the needs
of their customers. Recent success stories
include working with UNICEF to create
Project Connect, an ambitious project to
map schools and their connectivity on a
global scale.
This leads to Knoblich’s final point – that
open source can be used to support any
project which a business feels will add value
and this means it can form the foundation
of enacting good in the world. Whether
you are developing innovative technologies
such as hybrid cloud or AI, or pursuing
projects designed to create change in the
world, there is no method which gives you
deeper access to knowledge, flexibility, cost-
efficiency and innovation. That is why open
source is the best way for businesses to fully
digitally transform. n
Werner Knoblich, SVP and GM, EMEA, Red Hat
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