Red Hat, Synnex Enlist Open-Source ISVs for Midmarket Channel Push

Red Hat in May 2007 launched the Red Hat Exchange, a channel program in which Red Hat sells and supports software products from ISV partners, several of which are participants in the Open Source Channel Alliance. The idea of that program is to connect platform vendors, application ISVs, customers and service partners in virtual ecosystems.

The Red Hat Exchange's focus on products is fine for enterprises, but the solutions focus of the Open Source Channel Alliance represents the best way for Red Hat to go after midmarket customers, according to Gordon Haff, a principal IT adviser at Illuminata, a Nashua, N.H.-based research firm.

But despite Red Hat's channel momentum, one Linux provider said the company has often spoken of embracing the channel in the past, but hasn't always followed through.

"Red Hat talks a lot about being channel-driven, but they've yet to come in aggressively with solutions, and they need to do that to gain more market share," said the source, who asked not to be named. "They'll work with you if you have a large opportunity, but you have to have something big to bring to the table for them to show interest."

Other Linux integrators hailed the Open Source Channel Alliance as a solid step in the right direction.

"The current economic climate really requires companies like Red Hat to put forth these types of efforts to better support their products and their channel partners," said Frank Basanta, director of technology for Systems Solutions, a New York-based integrator.

Egan said Red Hat's experience in getting its channel partners accustomed to recurring revenue from subscription support contracts will help it do the same with new partners that come in from the Synnex relationship. "Getting to the point where that economic model was understood in the channel took some evangelizing," he said.

With the open-source model, customers can choose year-to-year agreements without being handcuffed by large capital expenditures, said Joe Dickman, managing director of Vizuri, a Red Hat partner in Chantilly, Va. He expects the Open Source Software Alliance to further convey this core benefit of open-source software to the midmarket.

"We've had relationships with these companies before, but the Open Source Channel Alliance will make it easier to find solutions without having to form our own alliances," Dickman said.