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November 10, 2010

Red Hat Sets a New Standard for the Next Generation of Operating Systems

With Support from Industry-Leading Partners, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Enters the Market; Offers Enterprise IT a Firm Foundation for a Virtualized and Cloud-Focused Future

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, the latest major release of the company's flagship operating platform, setting the scene for its server operating systems for the next decade. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat defines new standards for commercial open source operating environments. Designed to support today's flexible and varied enterprise architectures, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 delivers the comprehensive foundation customers need for physical, virtualized and cloud deployments.

Available for almost a decade, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has gained a reputation for performance and reliability and presents a high-value alternative to proprietary operating systems. Today customers all over the world rely on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for their most mission-critical workloads.

"For nearly eight years, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has delivered outstanding value and performance for our enterprise IT infrastructure," said Gordon Penfold, chief technology officer at British Airways. "We plan to migrate our mission-critical systems to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and anticipate that it will provide us with the flexibility to deploy our applications to fit our specific business needs, crossing bare metal, virtualized and cloud deployments."

"Building on our strategic use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, scaling from physical to virtual and cloud environments, we have been an active participant in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 beta program," said Motti Finkelstein, Managing Director at Citigroup. "The core capabilities of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, including improvements in security, performance and power management, will better enable us to scale to the largest systems on the market today while providing continued flexibility and great efficiency."

"By employing the new leading-edge features of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 including improved performance and optimized resource management, we look forward to being able to provide our customers with optimal cloud services to meet their needs," said Mamoru Murakami, director of IP Technology Department, Business Network Services Division at NTT Communications.

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 complements broader use of Linux and open source software across a range of verticals and particularly for large service provider and enterprise datacenter users by giving customers greater flexibility," said Jay Lyman, Enterprise Software Analyst in the Commercial Adoption of Open Source (CAOS) team at The 451 Group. "The release also addresses Linux deployment at greater scale thanks to kernel and KVM performance and feature enhancements in areas such as security, scheduling, power savings, control groups, resource and system management and multi-tenancy."

Incorporating software technologies developed by Red Hat, its partners and the open source community over the past three years, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 delivers extensive new features that span the product. These combine to offer customers and solution providers a world-class platform on which to develop and deploy applications. Enhancements range from kernel improvements for resource management, RAS, performance, scalability, virtualization and power saving, through a greatly extended and standards-compliant development environment, to a comprehensive range of updated server and desktop applications. It is designed to improve agility, lower costs and reduce IT complexity for customers.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is a compelling choice for users looking to migrate from UNIX to Linux and is a powerful alternative to Microsoft Windows Server. By setting the standard for open source computing, Red Hat Enterprise Linux also delivers industry-leading innovation for private and public cloud deployments.

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux has for years been the mission-critical platform of choice for many enterprise companies. Customers such as British Airways, Citi and NTT Communications have become trusted partners in the development of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux platform. We are now entering an era of enterprise computing where flexibility, portability and interoperability are more important than ever. And today, we are delivering the platform that customers need. This has always been our focus," said Paul Cormier, executive vice president and president, Products and Technologies at Red Hat. "What we are delivering is more open, more reliable and more comprehensive than other products on the market. The future is here with a platform designed to take customers into the next generation with virtualization and cloud."

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 includes hundreds of technical feature enhancements and additions that offer customers a significant technology leap over marketplace alternatives. It offers:

  • A highly optimized application platform for large-scale, centrally managed enterprise deployments.
  • Enhanced efficiency with the latest generation of highly scalable hardware systems.
  • Industry-leading virtualization performance, flexibility and security for both host and guest environments.
  • Extensive support for features designed to minimize ecological impact and carbon footprint of IT systems.
  • A platform suitable for long-term, stable deployment while able to incorporate new technologies for physical, virtual and cloud deployments.

At the heart of the factors contributing to the leadership of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as an industry standard is its extensive ecosystem of certified hardware platforms and software applications. Red Hat's goal is to offer unmatched choice to its customers, and its simple "certify once, deploy anywhere" model offers software providers and customers enhanced deployment flexibility. Additionally, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is designed to be as "future proof" as possible, optimizing the capabilities of today's system hardware from partners such as AMD, Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel and NEC, while facilitating the ability to incorporate the capabilities of tomorrow's systems.

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 was built to take advantage of the core density and power efficiency available in industry-leading servers, such as those based on AMD Opteron™ 6000 and 4000 series platforms," said Margaret Lewis, director of Software Strategy at AMD (NYSE: AMD). "Combining the impressive performance, scalability, virtualization and efficiency benefits of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 with AMD-based server solutions can help our joint customers to reduce costs and expand the capabilities of their computing infrastructure."

"With the proliferation of Linux-based computing environments, the combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and the Cisco Unified Computing System allows customers to achieve greater IT productivity while delivering lower total cost of ownership, greater agility and enhanced security," said Lew Tucker, vice president and chief technology officer of Cloud Computing at Cisco. "Virtualization technology has never been more essential, helping fuel consolidation efforts and enabling the transition to cost-effective and scalable cloud computing models. At Cisco, we're especially proud of the value we are delivering, with Red Hat, to customers around our unified system with policy-based management and hardware-enabled virtual I/O to yield greater control, visibility and performance for virtualized applications."

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux coupled with Dell PowerEdge servers enables customers to build, manage and maintain an efficient datacenter while preserving flexibility and choice," said Tim Mattox, vice president of Enterprise Product Marketing at Dell. "The technology leadership delivered with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 on Dell platforms provides exceptional value over RISC alternatives."

"Since 2003, Red Hat and Fujitsu have been working closely together to develop and enhance Red Hat Enterprise Linux to run mission-critical environments with Fujitsu's highly reliable hardware and software products," said Yoichi Hori, president, Platform Software Business Unit at Fujitsu. "We are pleased that Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 will enable our customers to run their systems on a more stable environment."

"Hitachi welcomes the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. With this release, we expect Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 will drive the adoption of Linux in the market with its improved high reliability compared to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5," said Daisuke Sasaki, general manager of Platform Software at Hitachi Software Division. "Along with Red Hat, Hitachi has co-developed strengthened RAS functionality in the Linux kernel and in conjunction with our highly reliable added functions, that are available through Hitachi Support 360. Red Hat and Hitachi are providing customers with a dependable and comfortable Linux environment. With the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, we will be able to bring these benefits to a greater number of customers."

"Clients need operating platforms that can accommodate a full range of datacenter models," said Scott Farrand, vice president, Infrastructure Servers and Software at HP. "Optimizing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 on ProLiant servers extends the power of open source to HP's Converged Infrastructure allowing clients to automate, scale-up or virtualize their environments to best fit their business requirements."

"Red Hat and IBM have collaborated for over a decade to optimize Red Hat Enterprise Linux and IBM platforms for the needs of our joint customers," said Jean Staten Healy, director of worldwide cross-brand Linux strategy, IBM. "The combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and IBM technology offers our joint customers even further improvements for mission-critical, virtualized and cloud deployments, especially when combined with our latest IBM hardware capabilities. Designed with scalability and performance, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 is an important new platform for the industry."

"Together, Red Hat and Intel are focused on driving innovation for enterprises by combining our world-class hardware and software capabilities. This collaboration extends throughout the ecosystem to ISVs, OEMs and system vendors to ensure innovation across all levels of the solution stack," said Doug Fisher, vice president, Intel Software and Services Group, and general manager, Systems Software Division. "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 on Intel® Xeon® processors provides extensive scalability, performance, reliability and availability benefits ideal for virtualization and cloud environments. Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on Intel is an industry-leading choice for today's demanding and mission-critical datacenters."

"We expect Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 with its superior scalability, stability, and availability to promote the adoption of Linux and to expand the Linux market globally," said Kotetsu Ohmiya, General Manager of 1st IT Software Division at NEC Corporation. "NEC's system architecture combining Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, EXPRESSCLUSTER, NEC's other middleware solutions, and Express5800 Series servers will drive the unprecedented adoption of Linux for mission-critical systems."

To learn more about Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, join Red Hat for a press conference that will be broadcast live via video webcast at 11am PT on November 10, 2010. The webcast will also be available for replay. To join, visit http://www-waa-akam.thomson-webcast.net/us/dispatching/?event_id=09a0527bde2a763b87bdbe202ea8a5ab&portal_id=af9b227bf07c733390c2738ee0330646.

For additional Red Hat Enterprise Linux announcements, visit www.press.redhat.com.

For more information about Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, visit www.redhat.com/rhel.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions and an S&P 500 company, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 65 offices spanning the globe. CIOs ranked Red Hat as one of the top vendors delivering value in Enterprise Software for seven consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value survey. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with virtualization, applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending, the effects of industry consolidation, uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements, the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

© 2010 Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, the Shadowman logo and JBoss are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Red Hat, Inc.
Kerri Catallozzi, 919-754-4268, kcatallo@redhat.com

Source: Red Hat, Inc.

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