Red Hat

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Red Hat, Inc. is an American multinational software company that provides open-source software products to the enterprise community. Founded in 1993, Red Hat is known for its Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating system. The company also offers a range of other software solutions, including middleware, applications, and management products.

History

Red Hat was founded by Bob Young and Marc Ewing in 1993. The company initially focused on providing a distribution of the Linux operating system. In 1999, Red Hat went public and became one of the first open-source companies to do so. Over the years, Red Hat has acquired several companies to expand its product offerings, including JBoss, Ansible, and CoreOS.

Products

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the company's flagship product. It is a Linux distribution targeted at the commercial market. RHEL is known for its stability, security, and support services, making it a popular choice for enterprise environments.

Middleware

Red Hat offers a range of middleware products under the JBoss brand. These include application servers, data services, and messaging tools. JBoss middleware is designed to help developers build, deploy, and manage applications more efficiently.

Cloud Computing

Red Hat provides several cloud computing solutions, including OpenShift, a Kubernetes-based container platform, and Red Hat OpenStack Platform, an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution. These products enable organizations to build and manage cloud-native applications.

Automation

Red Hat's automation portfolio includes Ansible, an open-source automation tool that simplifies the management of IT infrastructure. Ansible is widely used for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation.

Community and Open Source Contributions

Red Hat is a major contributor to the open-source community. The company sponsors several open-source projects and contributes to many others. Red Hat's commitment to open source is reflected in its business model, which is based on providing support, training, and consulting services for its open-source products.

Acquisitions

Red Hat has made several strategic acquisitions to enhance its product offerings. Some notable acquisitions include:

• JBoss (2006)
• Ansible (2015)
• CoreOS (2018)

IBM Acquisition

In 2019, IBM acquired Red Hat for $34 billion, making it one of the largest software acquisitions in history. The acquisition aimed to enhance IBM's hybrid cloud strategy and expand its open-source capabilities.

See Also

• Linux
• Open source software
• IBM
• Kubernetes
• Middleware