Red Hat is a software company that combines open source Linux operating system components with related programs into a distribution package that customers can order.
The Red Hat business model is based on an open source ecosystem, where collaborative development occurs within a community of professionals focused on providing quality assurance, testing and customer support.
Red Hat offers a variety of open source software that DevOps engineers and businesses use. These include operating system platforms, storage, middleware, management products, as well as training, support and consulting services.
Currently, Dell, IBM and Oracle support the Red Hat platform and open source community of applications.
The history of Red Hat
Red Hat was one of the first companies to realize that free software could be sold as a product.
After examining the successful marketing campaign of Evian water, Red Hat executives concluded that to be successful, the company had to create more Linux users and brand Red Hat as the Linux name that customers preferred.
Today, the "Red Hat Plan" is often discussed in business schools as a model for making customer support a company's primary product.
On October 28, 2018, IBM announced that it was acquiring Red Hat. The $34 billion deal closed in July the next year. Red Hat became a business unit of IBM's Hybrid Cloud team, while continuing to preserve the independence and neutrality of Red Hat's open source development heritage.
