Red Hat and VMware Expand Relationship to Accelerate Open and Interoperable Virtualization

Customers and ISVs benefit from certified solution available today and a commitment to broadened interoperability in the future

RALEIGH, N.C -

Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, and VMware, the global leader in virtual infrastructure software, today announced an expanded relationship to support customers and ISVs who are deploying virtualization today. As part of the relationship, Red Hat and VMware are delivering certification and focusing on open, community-based interoperability between Red Hat and VMware solutions.

"Customers care about open interoperability and certification for running joint Red Hat and VMware environments," said Brian Stevens, CTO at Red Hat. "With this relationship, the two virtualization platforms that Red Hat Enterprise Linux will support are the VMware platform and the Red Hat Integrated Virtualization platform that will be available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. The wide adoption of open source is a result of the commitment to interoperability. Support for our joint customers is just one more example of the efficacy of true open source development."

"The combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and VMware software has always been a popular solution with customers, and we look forward to collaborating with Red Hat to advance open community-based technologies such as virtual machine disk formats and paravirtualization APIs," said Brian Byun, vice president of Global Partners and Solutions at VMware. "We are committed to driving support, certification, and interoperability with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Red Hat Application Stack. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is also the first operating system to be certified by VMware as part of the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace."

Red Hat and VMware will accelerate their efforts to drive adoption of open and accessible interoperability points through a community-based development model. By collaborating on key technology issues such as virtual machine disk formats, paravirtualization, and management API's, the companies intend to work within the open source community to create a common, interoperable virtualization model that ISVs and customers can trust - no matter which deployment model they choose.

"For us to broadly deploy Red Hat and VMware environments in production, we need strong interoperability, certifications and support from Red Hat and VMware together," said Chris McDaniel, Director, Network Operations at Rearden Commerce. "This expanded relationship between Red Hat and VMware will assure that we can make Linux virtualization with Red Hat and VMware a standard component of our environment."

Red Hat has already certified VMware Infrastructure as both a certified software application and a certified virtual hardware platform for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In addition, all VMware solutions fully support running Red Hat Enterprise Linux inside a virtualized environment. Starting today, the Red Hat Application Stack virtual appliance is certified and available in VMDK format in the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace for both customers and ISVs to evaluate in a pre-production environment. The VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace can be found at http://vam.vmware.com.

Red Hat and VMware plan to jointly deliver channel bundles of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the Red Hat Application Stack paired up with VMware Infrastructure and VMware Server. These bundled solutions are designed to bring together the best of open source and virtual infrastructure in an integrated and jointly supported solution bundle for customers, systems integrators, and channel partners to adopt and leverage.

For more information on Red Hat enterprise solutions, please visit http://www.redhat.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. The most trusted name in open source, CIOs and other senior-level IT executives have ranked Red Hat as the industry's most valued vendor for two consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's open source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

Forward-Looking Statements

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  • 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.