Red Hat Achieves Record-Setting Price and Performance Benchmark

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2, in combination with IBM System x and Intel solutions, tops competition with 1M tpmC benchmark

RALEIGH, N.C. -

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Red Hat Enterprise Linux has achieved a powerful, record-setting TPC-C benchmark that demonstrates the rapid improvements that open source software can bring to overall performance and costs. In its fifth TPC-C result over 1M tpmC, Red Hat improved price performance to a level 20 percent lower than the best competing non-Red-Hat result with a combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 on an IBM System x 3950 M2 with the new Intel X7460 Xeon processor.

Icon-Red_Hat-Media_and_documents-Quotemark_Open-B-Red-RGB


 

In its latest 1M tpmC benchmark, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 outperformed all other operating systems on price performance in the 1M+ range. The Red Hat-based benchmark system delivered 1,200,632 transactions per minute and improved the price performance to $1.99, delivering a 20 percent savings in comparison to competitors.1 The single system proves its capability to handle substantial transactional workloads with its ability to process over 20,000 transactions per second.

"Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides an extremely capable and reliable platform for customers' heavily demanding high-performance, high-scale platforms," said Scott Crenshaw, vice president, Platform Business Unit at Red Hat. "We broke our first 1M tpmC barrier back in December 2003, which was two years before others in the industry, like Microsoft, reported their first 1M TPC-C results. With our latest record-breaking benchmark, we've again raised the bar for performance and cost-efficiency and have demonstrated proven benefits from the fast-innovating open source model."

In addition to its ability to handle challenging, high transaction-intensive jobs, the Red Hat-based, IBM solution offers headroom for growth and the opportunity to run simultaneous background jobs to produce bills and consolidate invoices, all while providing rapid response to customer orders and queries. In this TPC-C result, Red Hat also broke 100,000 operations per second per Java Virtual Machine for both bare-metal and virtual instances. The overhead of virtualization registered at only 6 percent, proving the excellent performance delivered through Red Hat Integrated Virtualization technology.

"Through this record-breaking TPC-C benchmark, IBM has demonstrated our unique ability to deliver high performance for Linux workloads, leveraging the scalability of the industry's only Intel-based 8-socket server," said Sergio Amoni, director of Marketing, IBM System x. "Because IBM innovates with its own chipset for Intel-based servers, clients can take full advantage of the high performance x3950 M2 system with unbeatable reliability and power and memory technologies capable of up to 37 percent lower overall power consumption."

For more information about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com.

1Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 with IBM x7560 Server w/DB2 scored 1,200,632 tpmC at $1.99/tpmC available 8/8/08

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 60 offices spanning the globe. CIOs have ranked Red Hat first for value in Enterprise Software for four consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value survey. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the integration of acquisitions; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; adverse results in litigation; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT and JBOSS are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the US and other countries.

  • About Red Hat
  • Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.



  • Forward-Looking Statements
  • Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending; the effects of industry consolidation; the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company’s growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.