Red Hat Speaks

Aaron Darcy and the applications stack

This month we speak with Aaron Darcy, leader of the testing and certification team that oversaw the development and release of Red Hat Application Stack, a certified stack integrating JBoss Technology. Red Hat announced the stack's availability on September 18th, 2006. More information about these solutions can be found on redhat.com.

What is your job at Red Hat, and what do you do in a normal day?
I'm a Product Management and Marketing Director, managing our testing and certification product efforts, which includes the Red Hat Application Stack. My typical day includes interacting with customers, partners, and Red Hat associates to ensure our initiatives are coordinated and are directly addressing customers' needs.

What motivates you to get out of bed and roll into work each morning?
The opportunity to be part of a team that is creating industry-changing, low-cost solutions that help our customers become more productive with their use of technology. I really enjoy being part of a company that I think is setting the standard for the "new" technology company.

How long have you been with the company? What did you do before?
I've been with Red Hat since March of '05. Prior to joining Red Hat, I worked in Information Technology at UBS Investment Bank, where I held a variety of roles in application development, business continuity management, service delivery, and program management.

What is a "stack," in 20 words or fewer, and why are they important?
A stack is a set of technologies that have been integrated together to work seamlessly, usually to serve a specific purpose.

What's your role in developing stacks and the strategy for stacks?
I'm responsible for the team that defines and delivers all aspects of the Red Hat Application Stack. It is a complete team effort and I work closely with most of the functions throughout Red Hat and JBoss: Marketing, Engineering, Finance, Legal and Business Affairs, GSS, and Sales. It's an incredible team. They've worked extraordinarily hard throughout the last 90 days to deliver the first integrated Red Hat and JBoss product.

Can you tell us what this announcement is all about? What's changing, what's staying the same, and who it affects?
On Sept 18th, we announced two important things: 1) the availability of JBoss subscriptions to all of our global distributors and resellers and, 2) the availability of the Red Hat Application Stack through Red Hat Network.
Red Hat Application Stack is a single, integrated subscription to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Application Server, JBoss Hibernate and the leading open source databases, MySQL and PostgreSQL, along with Apache Web Server. All this under one subscription delivered through Red Hat Network.

What do you see in the future for stacks, and how will you be involved?
Future Red Hat stacks will focus on combining open source technologies into simple, integrated subscriptions for specific use cases and business problems. Red Hat may introduce vertical stacks, for areas such as telecommunications, as an example. I'll be part of the team that helps define and deliver these.

What do you like to do when you're not working?
Spend time with my family. I've got three little ones. The oldest is four, so my wife and I have our hands pretty full. My children provide great comic relief for any tough work day! I'm originally from Chicago, so I'm turning my kids into Chicago Cubs and Bears fans!

Want more background on Certified Stacks? Check out this article from January 2006.