Red Hat and HP Debut Industry-First Open Source Blade Bundle

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Red Hat Network to be offered with HP BladeSystem; Red Hat Global File System and HP Serviceguard for Linux provide high availability solution

Linuxworld -

Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, and HP (NASDAQ:HPQ) (NYSE:HPQ) today announced new developments to help customers deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux solutions on HP technology.

At the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, the companies introduced an all-in-one software bundle designed for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux and HP BladeSystem environment. The offering is a result of Red Hat's collaboration in the HP BladeSystem Solution Builder program, which is designed to develop solutions to simplify and accelerate the deployment of blade infrastructures for customers.

In addition, Red Hat Network products will be offered with a specially designed HP BladeSystem toolkit and the companies will also team up on clustering by making Red Hat Global File System (GFS) available with HP Serviceguard for Linux.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux and management bundle for HP BladeSystem and the HP BladeSystem Integration Toolkit for Red Hat Network version 1.0 ease the deployment of multiple servers within an HP BladeSystem enclosure. Included in the bundle are multiple instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and provisioning module and Red Hat Network Proxy, which is available for the first time to HP customers.

"There has been tremendous growth in the demand for the lower-cost, more flexible scale-out architectures afforded by blade environments and Linux clusters," said Tim Yeaton, senior vice president of global marketing at Red Hat. "Red Hat and HP are bringing to market solutions that will give customers the high levels of availability they need with outstanding value."

HP is the first vendor to support a solution bundle with Red Hat Network to keep systems up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates. Red Hat Network allows quick provisioning of blade servers as workloads change with business needsâeuro”repurposing and provisioning a blade server can be done in minutes instead of hours.

"Customers use Linux today for the flexibility and control of open source. As a solution platform, customers are utilizing HP BladeSystem for its efficient, modular and integrated infrastructure," said Rick Becker, vice president and general manager, BladeSystem, HP. "HP is proud to be the first to partner with Red Hat to offer a bundled Linux solution for bladesâeuro”a winning combination of two technologies that deliver flexibility, performance and savings across the data center."

The HP and Red Hat bundle, available to customers purchasing an HP BladeSystem infrastructure, also includes HP tools to simplify deployment of multiple server blades within a blade enclosure. The HP BladeSystem toolkit also includes automatic detection and configuration tools supporting HP ProLiant Integrated Lights Out remote management technology.

"As both a partner in the HP BladeSystem Solution Builder program and a long-time HP end user, we've come to rely on HP and its extensive network of partners, such as Red Hat, for innovative, flexible, high-performance technology solutions to meet our changing customer needs," said Aditya Apparao, Vice Presidentâeuro”Oracle Managed Services, at DataRoad. "We are confident these new integrated open-source bundles from HP and Red Hat will benefit customers looking for ease of management, greater performance and the cost benefits of Linux, and applaud the two companies for being the first in the industry to make this happen."

Companies collaborate on comprehensive high-availability Linux solution

Red Hat and HP also announced the collaboration to deliver a complete availability solution on Linux clusters with HP Serviceguard for Linux and Red Hat Global File System (GFS) for HP ProLiant servers. HP Serviceguard for Linux provides continuous access to applications and services while Red Hat GFS provides continuous and shared access to data through a single cluster-wide file system. Together, HP Serviceguard for Linux and Red Hat GFS provide high availability for mission-critical applications with access to applications, services and data, and offer the ability to scale workloads easily and without creating manageability complexity. Following rigorous compatibility testing, Red Hat GFS and HP Serviceguard for Linux are supported together today, with support for the individual products provided by the respective vendor.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and management bundle for HP BladeSystem is expected to be available in September 2005. HP will also release a bundled product of HP Serviceguard for Linux and Red Hat GFS which is expected to be available worldwide in the autumn.

For more information please visit www.redhat.com/promo/hpblades/.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2005, HP revenue totaled $83.3 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at www.hp.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. 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

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they ever materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including the expected development, performance or rankings of products or services; statements of expectation or belief; and any statement of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the development, performance and market acceptance of products and services and other risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange Commission reports, including but not limited to HP's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2005, and other reports filed after HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2004. HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these 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
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