RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Carl Thompson, principal architect at Rackspace, has been named the 2015 Red Hat Certified Professional of the Year. The award honors a Red Hat Certified Professional who demonstrates ingenuity, hard work, and expertise, and will be presented to Thompson at Red Hat Summit 2015, taking place June 23 – 26 in Boston.

Thompson was recognized for his thought leadership, problem-solving, and innovation – traits which enabled him to use his status as a Red Hat Certified Architect to design a unique Red Hat Satellite infrastructure at Rackspace. Red Hat Satellite provides an easy-to-use system management platform that enables Rackspace to keep their Red Hat systems running efficiently and securely. Rackspace manages more than 40,000 globally distributed Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® systems. Thompson devised a Red Hat Satellite environment that makes it easier to manage this extensive array with minimal downtime.

In addition, Thompson wrote a complete remote procedure call application programming interface to the Red Hat Network portal. Portal access enables Rackspace support engineers to use Red Hat Satellite more flexibly and automate tasks such as new server registration, patch deployment, and rolling point upgrades. This has reduced the time it takes to deliver servers to customers.

For the last 16 years, the Red Hat® Certification program has had a single, important goal of building and validating skills through a program with rigorous, hands-on and performance based testing. Our certifications help system administrators, application developers, and IT architects advance their careers. Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) and all the programs that followed establish benchmarks for what an IT professional should know when using Red Hat technology.

Supporting quotes

Randy Russell, director, director of certification, Red Hat

“We select the Red Hat Certified Professional of the Year not only on the basis of their technical accomplishments and in-depth knowledge of Red Hat technologies but also for their eagerness to share their knowledge with others. Carl Thompson, a Red Hat Certified Architect, is responsible for a vast and reliable Red Hat Satellite infrastructure and a mentor and resource to everyone around him. On behalf of everyone at Red Hat – congratulations, Carl.”

Carl Thompson, principal architect, Rackspace

“To be named 2015 Red Hat Certified Professional of the Year is a fantastic honor. I have worked with Red Hat Enterprise Linux in one form or another since the mid 1990s and obtained my first Red Hat certificate in March 2007. Since then, I have completed more than 12 certifications and continue to work on more. Working with Red Hat and the certification program has been a truly rewarding experience and I would like to extend my fondest gratitude to Red Hat for selecting me to be the Red Hat Certified Professional of the Year.”

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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.

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