Red Hat Celebrates KFTC and HRDK for Driving Open Source Excellence at the Red Hat APAC Innovation Awards 2025 for Korea

Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the winners of the Red Hat APAC Innovation Awards 2025 for Korea. This year, Red Hat is celebrating Korea Financial Telecommunication & Clearing Institute (KFTC) and Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRDK) for their forward thinking use of open source to drive innovation, enable transformation and create meaningful impact across their organizations.

Embodying this year’s theme, “Unlock what’s next,” the Red Hat APAC Innovation Awards 2025 celebrates customers turning these trends into tangible results. The awards recognize 29 winners across the region whose inventive use of Red Hat’s open source technologies has sparked innovation, strengthened competitiveness, and delivered lasting value for their industries, customers, and employees. These organizations demonstrate how open source empowers enterprises to reimagine possibilities, navigate complexity, and seize new opportunities in an evolving landscape to define future competitiveness.

The awards comprise five categories: Digital Transformation, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud-native Development, Automation – and the newly added AI and Emerging Tech.

Category: Digital Transformation and Cloud-Native Development

Winner: Korea Financial Telecommunication & Clearing Institute

Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute (KFTC), a leading payment services provider serving banks, insurers, securities firms, and payment companies across Korea, plays a critical role in enabling secure and seamless financial transactions nationwide. To keep pace with the rapidly changing financial landscape and ensure its national financial network could respond with greater speed and flexibility, KFTC set out to modernize its legacy on-premise infrastructure.

The organization has since transformed its key service into a cloud-native, container-based architecture on Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus, creating a more reliable and scalable foundation for essential services. This shift has streamlined operations, reduced reliance on legacy infrastructure, and enabled faster service delivery, helping KFTC drive digital transformation and hybrid cloud innovation while supporting the stability of Korea’s financial ecosystem.

Category: Digital Transformation and Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure

Winner: Human Resources Development Service of Korea

The Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRDK), a quasi-governmental institution under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, plays a central role in advancing vocational skills, lifelong learning, and national technical qualifications. To better serve employees, employers, training institutions, and government agencies, HRDK recognized the need to modernize its outdated systems and create a more user-centric, data-driven platform. Rising demand for detailed qualification data, coupled with security risks from aging infrastructure, accelerated the push toward digital transformation.

With Red Hat solutions, HRDK has built a modern, hybrid cloud-ready foundation that streamlines application processes, strengthens system reliability, and enhances security and compliance. The new platform enables faster, more seamless access to qualification services, while big data capabilities support personalized insights and feedback for learners and institutions. This transformation is not only restoring trust in national qualifications but also laying the groundwork for innovative, future-oriented public services that empower Korea’s workforce across every stage of their careers.

Supporting Quotes

Marjet Andriesse, senior vice president and general manager, APJC, Red Hat

“The pace of change in Asia Pacific shows no signs of slowing, especially as AI becomes a core driver of business transformation. Despite these demands, our customers have delivered remarkable results, showing that innovation thrives when paired with open source. The Red Hat APAC Innovation Awards 2025 are an opportune time to recognize and celebrate these achievements, highlighting how our customers are unlocking what’s next and shaping a future defined by creativity, resilience, and impact.”

Ho Kwon Choi, Team Leader, Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRDK) 

"Digital transformation of the national qualification Information service was essential to provide faster, more reliable, and easily accessible services for the people and businesses of Korea. Through Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud technology and consulting expertise, HRDK has enhanced the efficiency of its qualification services, strengthened security and compliance, and enabled the delivery of personalized information for both exam applicants and certificate holders. The newly launched cloud-based next-generation Q-Net not only enhances the credibility of the national qualification system but also establishes a future-oriented platform that supports the development of Korean talent and their professional certification."