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Red Hat pushes for Linux in federal market
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“What’s been fascinating, as I talk to CIOs, is that unlike conversations I’ve had in the past where they ask me ‘Where are you guys in other government agencies?’ they’re very interested in where Red Hat is in the commercial marketplace.”
— Red Hat’s Paul Smith
— Red Hat’s Paul Smith
Next week, Mr. Smith goes to Washington—again. Paul Smith, head of Red Hat Inc.’s new government division, that is.
On Feb. 2, the leading commercial purveyor of open-source Linux will officially launch a federal division in Vienna, Va., with an eye toward promoting greater adoption of open-source software in government agencies.
Shortly after, at LinuxWorld in Boston, the Raleigh, N.C., company will roll out Version 4 of its Red Hat Enterprise License software (RHEL 4), its first release based on the Linux 2.6 kernel.
In separate interviews with GCN, Smith and Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said Linux adoption in the government and commercial sectors is strong, and the new federal office reflects a commitment by Red Hat to help agencies reap the purported benefits—lower costs, higher security—of open-source software.
Smith, who spent the past five years building the government division of storage software vendor Veritas Software Corp. (which recently agreed to merge with Symantec Corp.), said talking to agencies about Red Hat’s products is unlike other conversations he’s had.
“What’s been fascinating, as I talk to CIOs, is that unlike conversations I’ve had in the past where they ask me ‘Where are you guys in other government agencies?’ they’re very interested in where Red Hat is in the commercial marketplace,” Smith said.
That’s because Linux, as the flagship product of the open-source industry, has been successfully adopted in a variety of commercial industries, he said.
Interesting times
Red Hat’s formal push into the government market comes at an interesting time. The company is the leading provider of Linux server software at a time when Linux server sales are growing significantly faster than overall server sales—22.8 percent to 3.8 percent, according to research firm IDC Corp. of Framingham, Mass.
But competition is also swirling. Novell Inc.’s SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is rapidly growing its subscription base and Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to offer an open-source version of its Solaris 10 operating system to compete directly with Red Hat Linux.
The good news for agencies: Analysts expect increased competition to translate into even lower prices for enterprise-class Linux systems.
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