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IBM pledges to support Red Hat developer community post acquisition
Big Blue's decision to strike a multi-billion deal for open source player Red Hat means it gains a firm with a strong channel and developer network
IBM decided that it would make some history over the weekend choosing to spend $34bn on the largest software acquisition to pick up open source software player Red Hat.
The move has been made by Big Blue to shore up its position in the cloud space and the business will operate as a unit in the vendor's hybrid cloud division.
The acquisition will also have implications for Red Hat's channel, which has been growing in recent quarters, and now helps deliver 75% of the vendor's revenue.
“The acquisition of Red Hat is a game - changer. It changes everything about the cloud market,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and CEO.“IBM will become the world’s #1 hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses.“
"Most companies today are only 20% along their cloud journey, renting compute power to cut costs,” she said. “The next 80% is about unlocking real business value and driving growth. This is the next chapter of the cloud. It requires shifting business applications to hybrid cloud, extracting more data and optimizing every part of the business, from supply chains to sales.”
The firm has pledged to maintain Red Hat's open source legacy and will continue to support the developer community that is part of the ecosystem.
“IBM is committed to being an authentic multi-cloud provider, and we will prioritize the use of Red Hat technology across multiple clouds," said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president, IBM Hybrid Cloud. “In doing so, IBM will support open source technology
wherever it runs, allowing it to scale significantly with in commercial settings around the world.”
Paul Cormier, president, products and technologies, Red Hat, said that the firm had always been focused on taking open source into the enterprise customer base and not only would that remain unchanged it now had more chances of success.
“Now, one of the biggest enterprise technology companies on the planet has agreed to partner with us to scale and accelerate our efforts, bringing open source innovation to an even greater swath of the enterprise," he said.
