Looking back on my 25-year career, it’s clear the circumstances we face now are truly unprecedented. We are all adapting to a changing world, both personally and professionally. As we join together to navigate these challenges, please know that Red Hat is here to help

One thing that has not changed is Red Hat’s commitment to working with and through our partner ecosystem to support customers. In times like these, we find that the open source way keeps us grounded and focused on collaboration and transparency to enable creativity and innovation. Fix a bug, inspire a better solution, unite for the greater good. 

Red Hat’s partners have always been multipliers of the open source community and a driving force for customer success. Although we historically refer to our “partner ecosystem,” I believe it has proven to be more of a community. In my daily interactions with partners, there is an overwhelming sense of compassion, positivity and determination to help others. Our partners and customers are coming together to embrace change, find creative solutions, remain flexible and prioritize health and safety above all else. 

Red Hat continues to explore offerings to enable partner and customer success. This includes tools and resources to support virtual business and address customer needs. Red Hat has made training and certification program updates to accommodate virtually-led classes and extended timelines for completion for partners and customers. Partners can learn more about these program updates and available resources on the partner portal

Right now, we are focused on today, tomorrow and the weeks ahead, but I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the recent successes and progress made by Red Hat partners. Nearly one year ago we announced the completion of the IBM acquisition and committed to our partners that this would not compromise the underlying collaboration, engagement and open source spirit of the Red Hat partner ecosystem. I am proud to say that this commitment remains and our partners continue to have autonomy while benefiting from the scale and acceleration IBM offers Red Hat. And with the Red Hat Summit Virtual Experience next week, we are looking forward to joining together with partners and celebrating these recent milestone achievements. 

Year after year, our partners continue to champion open source solutions for customers. While the challenges of today are unlike those of yesterday, the Red Hat partner ecosystem, or “community” rather, remains strong. Together, we will navigate the future and any obstacles that may come.


About the author

Mark Enzweiler is Senior Vice President of Global Partners and Alliances for Red Hat. In this role, he is responsible for the development and execution of global partners and alliances strategy and sales. He leads the team that builds partner networks to efficiently sell and deliver a complete customer solution using the Red Hat portfolio. He joined Red Hat in 2006 as Vice President of North America Channel Sales. 

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