Friday Five — April 7, 2017

Red Hat's deep commitment to the open source community and open source development model is the key to our success. We don't just sell open source software, we are leading contributors to hundreds of open source projects that drive these solutions. This commitment to contribution translates to knowledge, leadership and influence in the communities we participate in. This then translates directly to the value we are able to provide to customers. When customers request new features or identify new use cases, we work with the relevant communities to drive and champion those requests. When customers or partners want to become contributors themselves, we even encourage and help guide their contributions. This is how we gain credibility and create value for ourselves and the customers we serve. But enterprise customers need products, not projects and it's incumbent on vendors to know the difference. Open source projects are hotbeds of innovation and thrive on constant change. Enterprise customers value this innovation, but they also rely on stability and long-term support that a product can give. Red Hat understands this difference.

Red Hat started creating "Open Source Stories," a video project that shines a light on the stories and people behind open source technology, because the company's writers and marketers kept coming across interesting ways to apply open source thinking. The videos humanize open source and take it from an abstract idea to a human, shareable story. Plus, they introduce open source to people beyond the tech space: The videos "explain to the layman the importance of open source," Leigh Day, vice president of marketing communications at Red Hat, says. At Red Hat, she says, "we're a mission-based company, so when we can show more people that open source is changing lives, we knit our work family closer together. This project really showcases our soul."

Thanks to companies like Red Hat and SUSE, open source is becoming the defacto software development model. But what sets Red Hat apart from the rest is that Red Hat continues to evolve with the changing market, instead of reacting and responding to the market, or failing to see where the market is going. In 2014, they saw the rise of cloud and shifted their focus from server-client to cloud-mobile. They acquired a technology to create a fully open source PaaS technology OpenShift. They saw the challenges and opportunities in the automation of IT infrastructure and acquired Ansible, and they continue to evolve. But as they are expanding beyond the core Linux server business, they are careful not to spread themselves too thin. When I asked Paul Cormier, president of products and technologies at Red Hat, the secret behind the company's success, he said, "As customers make cloud part of their infrastructure, we've built a portfolio that matches their needs. We were able to do this because the innovation that enables the cloud is based on Linux and open source. Beyond that, the 'secret sauce' is remaining committed to our model — 100 percent open source across our portfolio."

Today, we (Red Hat) have the honor of unveiling Red Hat's support of the Tate Exchange program at Tate Modern. You might wonder what a champion of open source software has in common with a champion of arts and culture. Quite a lot, as it turned out. With the launch of Tate Exchange, Tate Modern is inviting everyone who enters its doors to not just admire art, but to participate in it. The participation at the base of the program is what makes it so powerful. Just like in open source software, anyone can contribute, anyone can bring new perspectives, anyone can make a difference. There should be no barriers to creativity and creation — and that's why Tate Exchange and Red Hat are well-suited. Open source can transcend technology, and Tate Exchange is another example.

Two of Red Hat's writers spent the last 8 months talking to the people behind the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. The result is a 4-part article series about AI and open source. Part 1, "The People Behind OpenAI," is an in-depth look at how researchers and engineers at the Elon Musk-backed nonprofit are using open source to advance machine learning. Read more and stay tuned for a new article each week this month.