Asia to fuel Red Hat revenues
Red Hat expects 60 percent of its revenue to come from outside the United States by 2009, its company CEO said today.
In a conference call with Asia-Pacific journalists, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said the Asia-Pacific region is "increasingly" contributing to that target.
"We're seeing growing support from governments in the region, because they're seeing open source as an economic enabler. That adoption is continuing to drive Red Hat's economic success in the region," said Szulik.
On the strategy for the region in the next six to 12 months, Gery Messer, president of Red Hat Asia-Pacific, said he would be looking to expand Red Hat's current regional workforce of some 1,000 people here.
"Having the best talent on board is a key success factor. We will continue to hire and attract people," said Messer.
Red Hat's second strategy is to expand its partner relationships. Messer said the company is heavily reliant on its "partner ecosystem" in the Asia-Pacific region, where 80 percent of business is done through partners such as system integrators and resellers.
On JBoss, which Red Hat acquired in June 2006, Szulik said the company is "experiencing growing demand" for the software, and expects "accelerated growth" in the second half of the company's fiscal year ending on Feb. 28, 2008.
Szulik was in Singapore last year to speak at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's Distinguished Speaker series.