After a $ 34 billion acquisition by IBM, Red Hat is betting big on India

New Delhi: After International Business Machines Corp. Finalized Red Hat Acquisition for $ 34 Billion Earlier This Month, Top CEO of Iconic Software Company with Open Source Development Model said it was a "match made in paradise" that will help it accelerate its growth globally, including in India.

In India, Red Hat, a Linux operating systems specialist, has engineering facilities in Pune and Bengaluru.

"We believe that it is possible to accelerate growth (after the acquisition) – not only in the Indian market, but also in the wider market, but it does exist in India. I think we have the opportunity to do a lot more quickly, "John Allessio, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Global Services, Red Hat Inc., told IANS in a freewheeling conversation here.

The acquisition by Big Blue will not change the "mission" of Red Hat, nor limit its contribution to the open source community, Allessio said.

Red Hat, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, reported revenues of $ 3.4 billion for fiscal 2019, up 15% from the previous year .

"Red Hat has experienced 69 quarters of continued growth, which means that every quarter you hire people around the world and that will continue, that's for sure," Allessio said.

"After the acquisition, we are still an independent software company.What has changed, is that instead of having an external shareholder, we now have an internal shareholder", he explained.

Founded in 1993, Red Hat is known for opening open source code, including technologies such as Linux, Kubernetes, Ansible, Java and Ceph, among others.

Today, Red Hat products and services are widely used by government agencies as well as emerging companies in the fields of technology, finance, healthcare, civil aviation and others.

IBM, based in Armonk, NY, is particularly hopeful that Red Hat's open hybrid cloud technologies will help it position itself as a leading hybrid cloud provider.

"At the heart of what we do, we transform projects from open source communities into products because ultimately our customer is a business software client," Allessio said.

Read also | Why does Big Blue really want a red hat?

IBM also participates in open source communities, but it does not "produce" open source projects. Instead, he develops his own proprietary products.

"I think it 's an opportunity for IBM to learn this Red Hat DNA – how do we do it – and decide – they have not decided yet – if that' s it? applies to IBM's software development process IBM has already stated that they are very very interested in our services division, "added Allessio.

What has fundamentally changed after the acquisition is that IBM is no longer just a Red Hat business partner, it is now a strategic business partner.

"Whether it's for the market, operations, development, or support, IBM is not helping Red Hat, they are helping us as a new strategic business partner," he said, adding that Red Hat would continue to activities with its other trading partners.