With the reimagined Red Hat Summit Virtual Experience next week, we have created new ways for partners to connect with Red Hatters and each other, tune into keynotes and experience product demonstrations - all in a free virtual environment. That includes the North America Partner Experience, formerly known as the North America Partner Conference, which provides an opportunity for our partners to connect with each other,  network with industry thought leaders and learn about the latest updates from Red Hat. 

I joined Red Hat last month, in part, because of its commitment to the open source way, built on a foundation of collaboration and engagement. It was immediately evident to me that this is especially true within our partner ecosystem. Our partners are uniquely positioned to support customers in new and impactful ways today and well into the future. Red Hat is here to help, and to support our partner ecosystem right now, we’re offering some new tools and resources

The industry has shifted to hybrid and multicloud strategies to enable agility, flexibility and the portability of applications across cloud infrastructures. Customers trust the foundation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and we see that same trust forming in Red Hat OpenShift as the foundation for hybrid cloud as companies aim to optimize developer productivity and promote innovation. 

I hope to bring a fresh perspective to the partner ecosystem and look forward to speaking with each of you about the road ahead. Red Hat Summit offers the perfect opportunity to participate in partner-focused activities and engage directly with others across the industry. As a firm believer in two-way communication, I encourage each partner to join us at Red Hat Summit to share feedback, experiences and insights that can help Red Hat better serve the ecosystem. 


About the author

Ernest Jones is Vice President of North America Commercial Partners & Alliances. In his role, Jones is responsible for the development of strategic relationships across the Red Hat partner ecosystem to extend Red Hat's customer base. Ernest previously acted in leadership roles at Oracle and IBM overseeing cloud solutions sales and services. Most recently, he served as the co-founder and Chief Operations & Revenue Officer at vVents.com, an enterprise live-streaming cloud-based platform focused on maximizing sales channels via live video.

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