Etisalat Sri Lanka Adopts Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

Company achieves business scalability and cost savings with Red Hat virtualization solution

RALEIGH, N.C -

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Etisalat Sri Lanka has adopted Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization as the foundation for its critical IT infrastructure that services 2.4 million subscribers across the island nation's cellular network, inventory management and distribution services for 30,000 retail outlets. With Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Etisalat Sri Lanka has gained expanded scalability, operational efficiency and performance for its systems.

Etisalat Sri Lanka previously maintained a heterogeneous IT infrastructure with solutions from various vendors that each presented different levels of management complexity for its IT team. As Etisalat Sri Lanka's business continued to expand, its IT team was faced with the challenge of procuring new hardware to address growth within short deadlines. Recurring fees for renewing licenses, rising power costs and shrinking space to accommodate new hardware was also a challenge.

After evaluating multiple virtualization solutions, Etisalat Sri Lanka chose Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and successfully implemented the solution for its critical datacenter within one month with the help of Red Hat partner Visual Computing Systems (Pvt.) Ltd (VCS) of Informatics Group of Companies. "With Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Etisalat Sri Lanka was able to reduce its previous 40 servers down to just six servers, while hosting the same extensive amount of data," said Hemesh Fernando, senior manager, Marketing, Visual Computing Systems (Pvt.) Ltd. (VCS) of Informatics Group of Companies.

"We could not afford any disruption in services while our servers were being migrated. We needed an elegant, simple and powerful IT infrastructure that could eliminate multiple levels of cost and support and dramatically increase efficiency. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization was an excellent fit," said Chandrakanth Jayasinghe, head of IT Systems, Etisalat Sri Lanka. "With Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, we have witnessed a drastic reduction in TCO, enabling our IT team to concentrate more on our business. We've also seen an increase in stability, flexibility and scalability."

The consolidation of servers onto fewer machines resulted in a dramatic reduction in space, cooling and power needs for the organization. The Etisalat Sri Lanka IT team was also able to quickly set up high-availability clusters of applications, improving the reliability of the datacenter. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization's ability to manage Windows virtual machines in addition to Linux, and the seamless transformation of systems from standalone, aged hardware platforms to the Red Hat platform, greatly simplified Etisalat Sri Lanka's IT management tasks.

"Our biggest achievement to date with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization has been the ability to address server deployment requirements with short notice, saving time and money for our business. Deploying Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization was a smart move. The future of Etisalat Sri Lanka is now looking bright as we encounter our expanding customer base," said Sanath Pilapitiya, Chief Technical Officer, Etisalat Sri Lanka.

To read the full Etisalat Sri Lanka (Pvt) Limited case study, visit www.customers.redhat.com.

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

About Visual Computing Systems (Pvt.) Ltd. (VCS)

Established in 1983, Visual Computing Systems (Pvt.) Ltd. (VCS) is a leading systems integrator supplying innovative systems, quality software, state-of-the-art hardware and reliable support services to local and international markets through a combination of direct and indirect sales channels. VCS is a full subsidiary of one of Sri LankaÕs pioneering IT giants, Informatics (Pvt.) Ltd., which has over 25 years excellence in the IT industry.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions and an S&P 500 company, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 65 offices spanning the globe. CIOs ranked Red Hat as one of the top vendors delivering value in Enterprise Software for six 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 virtualization, applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and 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 delays or reductions in information technology spending, the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; 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; 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; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements, and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K (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.

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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.