Red Hat expects to see Linux make up only half its business within two years, as the firm plans KSA, Qatar and Kuwait offices, and sees customers in fear of being ‘Ubered’, writes Eliot Beer from GITEX Technology Conference.
The shift for Red Hat has been towards infrastructure- and platform-as-a-service, according to Lee Miles, General Manager for the Middle East and Africa: “Linux is still about 70% of our business – but we expect it to be about 50% of our business within the next two years. There’s a huge transformation towards cloud, towards big data and towards mobile.”
He said the firm is also planning a regional change to diversify its regional operations: “We will open an office in Saudi Arabia next year, to expand our regional presence outside of Dubai – and we’re also looking at longer term plans for the region to expand into Kuwait and Qatar.”
Mobile development is becoming an increasingly important area for regional enterprises, according to Miles: “I don’t really like the term, but people talk about being ‘Ubered’ – there’s somebody out there that can transform an industry overnight. So companies are looking for a way to not just having an internet presence, but really have an application or mobile presence that enables their customers to interact with them better.”
Despite the firm’s diversification, Miles said Linux was still providing good growth for Red Hat, and was the backbone for much of the firm’s development. He suggested the climate had never been better for the open-source operating system.
“There’s really only two operating systems around now, and ours is the growth one, as opposed to the other,” Miles told Intelligent CIO.
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