Red Hat Channel Strategy and Programs

Red Hat has recently experienced expanded growth, providing new and exciting opportunities in the channel space. In response to this growth, we have placed a global emphasis on building channel leadership around the world. Recently, we’ve made new channel executive appointments to help ease the transition into the opportunities that come with the expansion Red Hat is experiencing. We hired Mark Enzweiler for North America, Petra Heinrich for Europe and Masatsugu Koketsu for Japan.

We plan to expand our global channel programs too. The channel programs will include a robust Partner Program, Certified Service Provider Program and an enhanced Red Hat Partner Center. These new programs give us, as well as our partners, a great opportunity to grow. Our partners now have the chance to expand their open source practices, working with Red Hat on meeting the demand they’ll face with the demand for open source subscription opportunities and service engagements.

The new channel programs and features will be available around the world soon. The advantages are great. By increasing our focus on Business Partners committed to open source, our new Global Partner Program will include leads (for qualified partners), training benefits for RHCE and RHCA, the ability to participate in Marketing Development Funds (MDF) programs for demand generation and more. These benefits represent a 3-fold increase in value over prior years.

The Certified Service Provider Program, announced in January 2007, is a global, invitation-only partnership. The program is designed to encourage the growth of open source service practices through collaboration between our Global Professional Services and service-oriented channel partners with open source expertise and resources.

Our Partner Center will be the one place for partners to easily and seamlessly do business with Red Hat. The Center will allow partners to spend more time selling and less time on administrative activities.

With the exciting release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 today, new opportunities are available for our channel partners and their end customers. We are here to offer true value and innovative solutions.