Business type

Open100

Service/product description

Red Hat is the most trusted open source software provider and the most recognized Linux brand in the world. Open source is a collaborative development method for software that harnesses the power of peer review and transparency of process to develop code that is freely accessible. Open source draws on an ecosystem of thousands of developers and customers all over the world to drive innovation. Red Hat is the bridge between the communities that create open source software and the enterprise customers who use it to build and advance their IT infrastructures. 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 is a major catalyst for the creation of relevant open source technology that enables enterprise customers to perform mission-critical functions. The company’s customers span multiple industries including financial, government, healthcare, education, telecommunications, technology and computer animation, among others. Customers like NYSE Euronext, GEICO, DreamWorks, Whole Foods Market and the Federal Aviation Administration rely on Red Hat. Red Hat also stands up for open source ideals and works hard to foster greater participation in the open source process. Its success has made mainstream adoption of open source software viable and valuable, paving the way for others and proving the model works. Red Hat has built a growing, profitable S&P 500 business on the power of open source, not just as a development model, but as a business model.

What does 'openness' mean in this case?

Red Hat demonstrates openness with its development model, its business model, and by standing up for open source principles wherever and whenever possible. Red Hat participates directly in open source software development communities. It is the largest corporate contributor to the Linux Kernel, spending more that $100 million a year on research and development. Those innovations eventually make it back upstream for everyone to share. Open source principles and collaborative approaches to solving problems are applied throughout the company, in every department, for every kind of work. Hierarchy is de-emphasized in favor of participation and collaboration. At Red Hat good business ideas can come from anywhere, so important company matters are openly discussed in company mailing lists, wikis, and on internal corporate blogs. Everyone has a voice at Red Hat, and everyone is given the knowledge they need to make powerful contributions. In the public arena, Red Hat is a powerful advocate of open standards, uniform specifications in a market that are available free from any licensing, royalty payments and other restrictions. Additionally, open standards are implementable by multiple vendors on multiple platforms. Red Hat works with government and industry leaders to adopt open standards such as ODF, the editable document format. Red Hat also supports open content which includes any creative work published in a format that explicitly allows copying and modifying of its information by anyone, not exclusively by a closed organization, firm or individual. As part of its commitment to open content, Red Hat supports Copyleft principles and the work of organizations such as Creative Commons. Red Hat has long made a stand to improve the legal system and address the problem that software patents pose for innovation. Red Hat has consistently taken the position that software patents generally impede innovation in software development, and are inconsistent with open source/free software. Red Hat’s success is grounded in transparency and the free exchange of knowledge and ideas, so it fights for the freedom to share wherever it is threatened.