Pay attention when you’re driving - you might just see Red Hat’s Shadowman in the next lane. You see, innovation is on the move at Red Hat! Or as Program Manager, Chris Hawver would say – the Mobile Portfolio Center (MPC) – is bringing Red Hat’s innovative solutions to the customer at venues near their offices.

The annual Red Hat Summit, or the Red Hat Executive Briefing Centers around the globe, are great ways to catch up with the latest from Red Hat. But, due to travel and scheduling constraints, many of our customers miss those opportunities. So we’re expanding our reach with the MPC. We have many more stops planned as part of this initiative, there is a good chance the MPC is coming to a venue near you.

Honk if you want to innovate with Red Hat

The MPC brings its solutions packaged into this 80-foot long truck at a venue outdoors with access to savory food throughout the day. So, what’s inside the truck?

Hawer took me through a live tour on site where I got first hand insight into the compute, display, and storage housed in this Intel-powered Mobile Portfolio Center:

Three primary nodes - TranquilPC V6XD+ Micro Cluster systems with 32GB RAM, and two 1TB SSDs.

Four compute nodes with 128GB RAM, four 1 TB SSDs.

Four 65” flat screen monitors.

Four 24” monitors with USB media players for easy demo video access, so attendees can learn more about IT Optimization, Agile Integration, Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Native Application Development, IT Automation and Management.

Six kiosks with touch screens.

A smart board and smart podium, just like the one used in Red Hat’s Executive Briefing Center, that enables Red Hat executives like CEO Jim Whitehurst to converse directly to the attendees.

Attendees can also have fun with virtual reality games around the different types of storage solutions Red Hat offers.

All that hardware is there for a purpose, of course. We aim to demonstrate the portfolio of Red Hat solutions covering five key technology areas: cloud, middleware, operating platform, storage, and virtualization, provided with a subscription model.

Meet me in St. Louis

My first experience visiting the Mobile Portfolio Center was in St. Louis – the city where I had experienced the Gateway to Innovation. I watched customers being greeted to try out Ray-Ban sunglasses with the first few of them positioned to received a complimentary set.

Take a look at Red Hat innovation in style, so to speak!

I walked into the truck and found an air-conditioned setting with wireless access and demonstration pods of innovative solutions, with a full house of attendees listening to Solution Architects Robert Proffitt and Sam Nichols talk about security.

Guess who ventured into virtual reality to check out Red Hat storage solutions?

This particular instance was a General Expo configuration with Kiosks having self-guided demo’s around five IT challenges. Other venues have had a combination of general meetings seating 15 comfortably or Workshops accommodating up to 40 attendees.

After the session, I got a chance to spend a few minutes with one of the customers who summed it up best, “I got all my questions answered right away by Red Hat experts just minutes away from myworkplace.”

The Mobile Portfolio Center truck has traveled across the contiguous United States on land and water – it has also taken the ferry to cross the Strait of Georgia to go from Vancouver to Victoria in British Columbia. While the truck itself may not have taken off into the skies, many customers flying high on innovation might have even caught a glimpse of the Shadowman logo on top of the truck!

Other experiences that have stood out for Hawver include:

A bird flying into the MPC at one location

Mini-briefing sessions for Executives

CEO Jim Whitehurst addressing the attendees through the Smartboard conferencing

The options are almost endless when it comes to the MPC, just as they are with Red Hat solutions in general.

It is an open road to innovation and if you happen to see the Red Hat truck -- honk away to unlock the world’s potential! Learn more about our MPC on our “open source hits the road” page.