New Research Expects Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Impact $10 Trillion of Global Business Revenues, Employ 900,000 IT Professionals in 2019

  • According to study, the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform provides economic benefits of more than $1 trillion each year to customers with nearly $7 billion in IT savings
  • By 2023, new ecosystem revenues forecast to net more than $135 billion for Red Hat Enterprise Linux partners; Red Hat partner ecosystem to gain $21.74 for every dollar Red Hat makes
  • Red Hat and its ecosystem of customers and partners expected to drive nearly 640,000 new jobs by 2023
BOSTON – RED HAT SUMMIT -

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced new research from IDC that examines the contributions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to the global economy. According to the IDC study, commissioned by Red Hat, software and applications running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux are expected to contribute to more than $10 trillion worth of global business revenues in 2019, powering roughly 5% of the worldwide economy as a cross-industry technology foundation.

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As the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux fuels these operations and more, touching trillions of dollars of global business revenue, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and opening tens of billions of dollars in opportunities to ecosystem partners.

Cushing Anderson

program vice president, Business Consulting and IT Education, IDC

When deployed in support of business activities, Red Hat Enterprise Linux users are expected to see economic benefits of more than $1 trillion each year through 2023, thanks to both increased revenues or decreased expenses.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux saves billions and puts millions to work

As the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is widely trusted across industries and by customers around the world to provide a modern foundation that can support any application, any environment, anywhere. The research found that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is most frequently used for enterprise management and production (26%), IT infrastructure (20%) and customer relationship management (18%). IDC found that Red Hat Enterprise Linux provided business benefits in each workload – an increase in revenues from using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, a decrease in expenses, or an increase in employee productivity.

According to IDC’s research, IT organizations using Red Hat Enterprise Linux can expect to save $6.7 billion in 2019 alone. IT executives responding to the global survey point to Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

  • Reducing the annual cost of software by 52%

  • Reducing the amount of time IT staff spend doing standard IT tasks by 25%

  • Reducing costs associated with unplanned downtime by 5%

Red Hat Enterprise Linux helps drive these benefits by design, refining raw community innovation through security updates and hardened code. This helps the platform to withstand the rigors of enterprise workloads and to meet many of the strictest security standards in the world. This helps to mitigate unplanned downtime and improves business confidence in the underlying infrastructure.

The platform also embraces native automation and abstraction of complex subsystems, making it easier to manage, update and configure. Combined, these capabilities enable enterprises to keep IT infrastructure functioning properly while minimizing operational resources, including manpower. With Red Hat Enterprise Linux easing many of the complex routine tasks of the operating system, IT professionals are able to work on other projects that can drive new business opportunities and enhance value.

The report also indicates that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a global employment and local investment catalyst. By the end of 2019, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ecosystem will directly employ nearly 900,000 workers, with an additional 236,000 jobs added through 2023. Additionally, the community of Red Hat Enterprise Linux-focused IT professionals working within customer organizations - defined by IDC as IT professionals who work with the software, hardware, and services stacked on Red Hat Enterprise Linux - is estimated at 1.7 million worldwide and 2.1 million by the end of 2023.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux: An $80 billion dollar ecosystem

For ecosystem partners, Red Hat Enterprise Linux represents a flexible, scalable and more secure foundation for building the next-generation of hybrid cloud applications and services. But more than a technology platform, the IDC report shows that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a revenue driver: By the end of 2019, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ecosystem of partners and resellers will generate more than $80 billion, gaining $21.74 for every dollar of revenue generated by Red Hat.

IDC expects this trend will continue, however, with net new ecosystem revenues from 2018 to 2023 adding up to more than $135 billion for Red Hat partners. While some of the firms in the Red Hat ecosystem are multinational organizations, most are not. According to IDC’s research, this means that fueled by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ecosystem, these regional companies will invest more than $35 billion in local economies by 2023, providing an even more positive long-term economic impact.

Press webcast

Red Hat will host a press conference live from Red Hat Summit at 11 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, May 8. Following remarks, press and analysts are invited to participate in a live question and answer session.

To register for the press conference or view the replay after the event, visit https://onlinexperiences.com/Launch/QReg/ShowUUID=45D50AF9-7E2C-4F8C-8606-B85EBDA927AC

Supporting Quotes

Stefanie Chiras, vice president, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat

“Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides a flexible, stable and more secure foundation for IT organizations building applications and services that span the hybrid cloud. But as this report shows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is more than just an operating system; it’s an economic engine that drives not only the success of our customers but also our partners and the broader global markets.”

Cushing Anderson, program vice president, Business Consulting and IT Education, IDC

“The operating system is at the heart of every modern enterprise and powers a wide range of crucial business activities, from running globe-spanning ERP systems to forming the foundation of massive IT infrastructure. As the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux fuels these operations and more, touching trillions of dollars of global business revenue, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and opening tens of billions of dollars in opportunities to ecosystem partners.”

Additional Resources

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