The Next Stage For Red Hat

Channel partners will remain the key to accelerating Red Hat’s growth once IBM closes its $34 billion acquisition of the enterprise open-source software provider, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said Wednesday.

CRN sat down with Whitehurst at the Red Hat Summit in Boston to talk Red Hat’s commitment to its channel partner program under Big Blue, which is about two years into its own channel program overhaul.

IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, from the Red Hat Summit stage on Tuesday, said Red Hat would remain independent, with its culture preserved, once it becomes a part of IBM. But channel partners—which drive 80 percent of Red Hat’s revenue—were not mentioned.

While Whitehurst was cautious in his statements due to outstanding regulatory approvals of the IBM deal, he said Red Hat was being “highly, highly sensitive to protecting our channel and our channel partners.”

Here’s what Whitehurst had to say about Red Hat’s channel program and life under IBM.