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, 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.

The world’s leading provider of open source solutions brings its headquarters to downtown Raleigh

CEO Jim Whitehurst talks at a City of Raleigh press conference. Photo by Reid Serozi.
The City of Raleigh announced on January 6th 2012 during a press conference hosted by Mayor Nancy McFarlane that Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, is making downtown Raleigh, North Carolina its new global headquarters. RThe company has plans to nearly double that number in Raleigh with the creation of an additional 540 jobs over the next nine years. Red Hat has chosen 100 East Davie Street as its global headquarters. 

Red Hat has long been at the forefront of a movement toward the adoption of open source technology. With the announcement, the City of Raleigh seeks to establish a growing ecosystem of partners and providers around the open source leader and to bolster Raleigh’s reputation as a leading open source community. The City of Raleigh is also planning to implement open source philosophies and strategies in an effort to make collaboration and transparency with the community a priority. 

"Open source is a philosophy that has had a widespread impact both in creating software and in creating culture. Collaboration, transparency, and openness represent the future of our business community—helping to foster a climate for innovation and business growth." said Mayor McFarlane.

In Raleigh, both open source technology and an open-minded community are influencing areas from city government to creative entrepreneurship. The City is also applying core open source principles such as transparency and participation to government itself. Working to implement collaboration tools and vehicles such as social media and citizen-led forums to discuss issues such as transportation and city planning, the City is demonstrating a commitment to open collaboration. Earlier this year, the City also hosted its first CityCamp Raleigh event, which brought together a group of residents committed to reimagining the way the web, applications, technology, and participation shape Raleigh’s future. CityCamp encourages the use and creation of open source solutions for communities around the country. An additional example of the City’s creative appeal and open approach is SPARKcon, an event that is held in downtown Raleigh and showcases local creativity, talent, and ideas. Founded in 2006, the annual event employs an open source organizational approach to empower diverse creative thinkers to be inspiring community leaders.

From an open source technology standpoint, Red Hat has been an invaluable strategic partner in the city’s transformation of its IT infrastructure from one based on proprietary platforms to one based on open source and commodity platforms. Since 2007 the City of Raleigh has used Red Hat technology to run the city’s most critical business systems. This software has led to efficiencies for applications such as financials, human resources, geographic information systems, and many more. In addition, the cost savings the City was able to realize with Red Hat far outweighed the options presented by other technology providers.

“We'd like to thank the City of Raleigh and Wake County for all the support in making downtown Raleigh home for Red Hat's headquarters. Combining the Triangle’s renowned educational resources with the energy and culture of downtown Raleigh made this location ideal for both Red Hat and our associates,” said Jim Whitehurst, CEO at Red Hat. “We are excited to utilize all of the downtown amenities. From hotels to event venues, restaurants and recreation, downtown Raleigh will suit our active company and culture. We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with the City of Raleigh and Wake County on further strategy for open source philosophy and technology implementations.” 

Raleigh has received numerous accolades for its culture and business climate. Raleigh was recently named America’s Best City by Businessweek.com and Raleigh has topped Forbes list of Best Places for Business and Careers four out of the last five years.

References

1. "Red Hat Selects Raleigh as its Global Headquarters" City of Raleigh News, 1/6/2012