Red Hat expands Open Source Initiative in APAC
ConvergenceAsia staff
07/08/2009

Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, has furthered the advancement of open source adoption with the expansion of its Open Source Collaborative Innovation (OSCI) initiative in Asia Pacific.

The company launched OSCI in Malaysia this week to increase the availability of locally developed solutions and open source training.

“The success of OSCI is testament that Red Hat’s model of collaboration helps accelerate innovation in the industry,” said Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of Red Hat. “It creates a framework for developers, customers and leaders in the local communities to participate and share ideas to develop open source solutions that help reduce IT costs while providing enhanced performance.”

OSCI, which is an important part of Red Hat’s overarching vision to change the way software is developed and consumed, aims to make more open source solutions available to the market through partnerships with local software developers, to grow the pool of skilled open source professionals through Red Hat Training, and to encourage a vibrant open source community by providing resources and support.

OSCI Malaysia will help develop programmes that promote community-based collaboration to accelerate the pace of local innovation, increase availability of local open source applications and develop open source skills among IT professionals.

Under this initiative, Red Hat Malaysia is working with an ecosystem of 60 partners including ISVs, systems integrators and solution providers on local application development and to provide open source training based on Red Hat Training curriculum.

In Singapore, Red Hat has partnered with local ISVs on application development under the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore’s Infocomm Local Industry Upgrading (iLIUP) programme since 2008. Some of the new solutions include a hospital bed management system, a taxi booking application, a CRM loyalty application and a progress claims system.

Red Hat also welcomed four new Red Hat iLIUP partners: iZENO, Vtech, Open Tres and Maven Lab. They join C3S, Cxrus Solutions, Ecquaria Technologies, Malifax Technologies, Philip Tang & Sons and Y3 Technologies to expand the range of open source applications for enterprises and small- and medium-sized businesses in Singapore.

Strongly advocating skills development, Red Hat also announced the recruitment of Republic Polytechnic and UniSIM as Red Hat Training partners to teach Linux and open source skills using Red Hat’s Linux curriculum. With the latest recruitments, Red Hat has six Red Hat Training partners in Singapore.

Red Hat has also increased the capacity and scope of Red Hat Training in Singapore. The programme is on track to train an estimated 2,000 students in open source from 2008 through the end of 2009. The Singapore Polytechnic’s Continuing Education Training (CET) Centre has also initiated an Enterprise Linux Administration Certificate course for working adults. UniSIM started the first Executive Master programme in Open Source Software in Asia Pacific in January 2009.

In China, OSCI has seen an increase in the number of Red Hat independent software vendors (ISVs) and has recruited 50 educational institutes as Red Hat Training partners. Red Hat also announced that it is one of the technology providers to the new Guangdong Cloud Computing Centre, which will be based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

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