Against the backdrop of EclipseCon2010, we announced the first virtual forum to discuss the future of middleware and so far we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response. Registrations for the event are pouring in. Customers, partners and vendors want to play an active role in the evolution and future direction of middleware for enterprise IT.

That was actually the genesis of the forum. We wanted to facilitate a discussion on this topic by addressing questions and gathering the best and brightest in the industry to share their thoughts and lay the foundation for the future.

This week we posted the agenda here, http://www.redhat.com/middleware2020/, which highlights the line up of speakers that will present during the virtual conference. Industry thought leaders from Accenture, Adobe, The Apache Software Foundation, Google, HP, SAP and of course Red Hat will present and take questions on their vision for the future of middleware. In addition to these industry leaders, Red Hat’s own CTO and Vice President of Worldwide Engineering, Brian Stevens, will be moderating the day-long conference and adding his comments and vision on middleware innovation.

The ecosystem of vendors, customers, developers and partners is growing in many cases and in some cases it is consolidating. But we believe that one dynamic is certain, and that is the strategic importance of middleware technologies for almost every industry in the marketplace. In this case Red Hat seeks to serve as a convergence point to discuss questions and possible answers and to tap into innovative ideas and movements that will help shape the evolution of middleware for the next ten years.

Please join us on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 for Middleware2020: A Virtual Forum on the Future of Middleware. To register visit, http://www.redhat.com/middleware2020/