Here’s a quick review of the Red Hat Asia Pacific Virtual Partner Conference 2020 held in August this year.
“Red Hat is about to reach 4,000 partners in the Asia Pacific, and despite being acquired by IBM, partners have continued to join,’’ said Andrew Habgood, senior director, Partners and Alliances, Red Hat Asia Pacific at the Red Hat Asia Pacific Virtual Partner Conference 2020 held in August this year. He added that Over 70 per cent of its business in Global and over 83 per cent of its business in the Asia Pacific is through the partner ecosystem.
Habgood said that its partner ecosystem includes cloud partners, IHVs, ISVs, GSIs, and partners in the IoT and embedded domains. What the company is witnessing is the convergence of these partners.
This virtual event saw the attendance of more than 2,200 Red Hat partners, distributors, systems integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and solution providers.
Right culture is the key to digital transformation
Habgood stated that there has been a rapid digital transformation in the APAC region, and the pandemic has only accelerated it. He added, “Culture is the key to success in digital transformation. Without having the right culture, digital transformation is not possible.”
“Open source has moved beyond the status of simple technologies for games and hobbyists,’’ said Frank Feldmann, vice president, APAC Office of Technology, Red Hat. He highlighted that open source allows anyone to run the software for any purpose, see the source code and how the software works, and modify it by bug fixes and enhancements. The solutions can come from anyone, even outside one’s organisation.
Feldmann added, “Open source gives the opportunity to share, which unifies contributors and helps them have a common vision. This kind of collaboration leads to a new development factor.’’ He further said that there are several benefits of open source. It helps to attract and retain talent, influence the direction of technological development, and improve the code quality.
The virtual conference kicked-off with a keynote presentation by Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen, senior vice president and general manager for Red Hat Asia Pacific, followed by sessions with Frank Feldmann, vice president, APAC Office of Technology, Red Hat; and Andrew Habgood, senior director, Partners & Alliances, Red Hat Asia Pacific.
Open hybrid cloud
Feldmann stated that a balance between the business model and ethos is critical for customer success. He said that top global cloud service providers are ‘harvesting’ more than what they are ‘seeding’ in the open source community. They are leveraging the open source awe whilst consolidating customer access and control. He added that customers ultimately want and need to own their data, and they want partners that are not going to be competitors in any other part of their business.
He further said that the open hybrid cloud is how the customers will get to win. Red Hat follows the mantra, “Bring the code. Build the app. We will take care of the rest.”
Right time for Indian partners to join in
India is a very important market for Red Hat. Abhishek Datt, CTO, Taashee Linux Services and Red Hat Partner, said, “This is the best time for any partner to jump in and use the Red Hat portfolio. Red Hat has now made it wholesome so that there is something in the kitty for everyone. There is huge potential not only on the infrastructure side but also across all domains like automation and digital transformation, among others.’’
