Red Hat Joins Facebook’s Open Compute Project to Drive Datacenter Efficiency

Red Hat Joins Facebook’s Open Compute Project to Drive Datacenter Efficiency


Open Compute Project to use the open source development model to transform the energy efficiency of global datacenters; Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens keynotes at the Open Compute Summit

Raleigh, NC - October 27, 2011

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that it has joined the Open Compute Project, a project established by Facebook with the goal of building one of the most efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost.  With this, Red Hat will collaborate with the Open Compute Project and its members on technologies, design and development to redefine the next-generation datacenter.

With the Open Compute Project, Facebook embarked on a mission to build datacenters using the traditions of open source software and with the intention of sharing its technologies as they evolve.  The project’s datacenters are designed to improve efficiency through reduced energy loss, power consumption and re-use of resources, such as using system heat output to warm buildings.  With its first Open Compute Project datacenter in Prineville, Oregon, the organization achieved a 38 percent increase in energy efficiency at a cost of 24 percent less as compared to its other facilities.  Red Hat has coordinated with several large customers to participate in the Open Compute Project, starting with the certification of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on two systems that are based on the Open Compute Project specification.  As a result of this collaboration, users of Open Compute Project-based systems are able to utilize Red Hat solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as certified technologies in their datacenters.

Today, in New York City, the Open Compute Project is hosting its second Open Compute Summit to promote technologies and innovation for defining and delivering these efficient datacenters.  At the event, Brian Stevens, CTO and vice president, Engineering at Red Hat, will deliver a keynote presentation on Red Hat’s commitment to the open source development model and the collaboration on the Open Compute Project.

“Red Hat was built on the principles of openness, collaboration and technology contribution that define the open source development model,” said Stevens.  “With the Open Compute Project, Facebook is using the power of the open source model to redefine how datacenters are designed and built.  With our consistent focus on innovation and end-user value, it was natural to take part in this project to not only extend the benefits of Red Hat products to these systems, but to also help expand the reach of open source technologies as a whole.”

Following the certification of its operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat plans to test its virtualization platform, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization.  Additionally, it is expected that its recently acquired storage technologies will be extended for use within Open Compute Project architecture environments.

“Efforts such as the Open Compute Project take open source to another level as they share information and best practices on datacenter scale, sustainability, cost and efficiency with the broader industry, leveraging the power of collective knowledge,” said Jay Lyman, senior analyst with The 451 Group. “Facebook and other supporters should be commended for the effort, which gains technology and open source credibility with the involvement of Red Hat.”

For more information about the Open Compute Project, visit http://opencompute.org/.  For more information about the Open Compute Summit, visit http://opencompute.org/summit.

For more information about Red Hat, visit www.redhat.com.  For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions and an S&P 500 company, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with more than 70 offices spanning the globe.  Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with cloud, virtualization, applications, management, storage and service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.