Red Hat eyes app platform leader with Samsung

By Lee Min-hyung

Red Hat General Manager Bryan Che speaks during a press conference at the InterContinental Seoul COEX in southern Seoul, Tuesday. The company held “Red Hat Forum 2015” to introduce its open source technology and mobile platform business. / Courtesy of Red Hat Korea

Red Hat, the world’s leading mobile application platform provider, says it will create an unprecedented partnership model with Samsung, a move it has been pushing to provide converged mobile systems at the enterprise level.

“Our partnership with Samsung is like the partnership between IBM and Apple, but there are key differences,” Red Hat General Manager Bryan Che said during a press conference at the InterContinental Seoul COEX in southern Seoul, Tuesday.

This came months after the U.S.-based open source software provider announced it had teamed with the handset maker. In June, Red Hat said it would support Samsung to expand its presence as a business-to-business (B2B) application system provider. Samsung has also pushed for increasing investment in the B2B application market as its next growth engine.

“Apple is not a backend service provider. It is primarily a mobile operating system provider,” he said. “Apple only supplies the operating system and the ability to adopt applications onto iPhones and iPads. But Red Hat helps you deploy them into Android, and into other devices so you are not locked into just one platform.

“So the way we collaborate with each other is a little different from the way Apple works with IBM. As part of our partnership, it is primarily Samsung business consultants that are working with us and customers to develop a new mobile application for enterprises.”

The Red Hat executive also shared his views on how the next digital environment will be reshaped based on mobile, Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud based ecosystems.

In particular, he stressed the importance of the IoT digital market.

“By 2025, the IoT is expected to be an $11.1 trillion market,” he said citing data from consulting firm McKinsey. Every single business is going to be connected to the digital world.” He said the IoT will play the biggest role in building that world.

During the press conference, the company called for adopting an open source platform in the enterprise context.

Jay Hahm, general manager of Red Hat Korea, a local subsidiary of the platform provider, said, “Red Hat has grown for the past 54 consecutive quarters.”

He said the company attributes its success to a subscription-based business model.

To extend its global presence, the company said it is seeking more partnerships with local companies to provide its mobile-based platform. It said it is in a position to meet more partners here and expand its business models as it has done with Samsung.