The Hindu Business Line : Red Hat plans to offer cluster computing

RED Hat Inc, a provider of open source solutions for enterprises, plans to target the enterprise segment consumers with cluster computing technologies and lower cost hardware that help manage large data applications.

The Global Product Manager of Red Hat, Mr Mike Farris, told Business Line that the Indian market is maturing where open source cluster applications are gaining popularity in sectors such as Government, education and financial services. As the number of ISVs (independent software vendors) and OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have begun to support open source, this enterprise segment could witness greater penetration.

Citing the case of some of the major deployments in India that include Haldia Dock Complex, LIC, New India Assurance and Kotak Bank, and in various Government applications including that of Maharashtra Government, Mr Farris said as enterprises begin to see the advantages the open source software brings, they are now ready to take to it.

"Storage and data availability is a major issue for enterprises calling for longer storage capabilities than ever before. Gartner had predicted that enterprises that do not leverage server virtualisation technologies would spend up to 25 per cent more annually for hardware, software, labour and space," he explained.