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IBM has announced that it will buy the open source software business Red Hat for $34bn
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Red Hat distributes Open Source cloud services. These cloud services are increasing in popularity compared to traditional cloud software.
IBM said yesterday that Red Hat will become a separate unit inside IBM following the deal. Red Hat chief executive Jim Whitehurst will join IBM’s management team. He will report to IBM chief executive Ginni Rometty.
“Joining forces with IBM will provide us with a greater level of scale, resources and capabilities to accelerate the impact of open source as the basis for digital transformation and bring Red Hat to an even wider audience – all while preserving our unique culture and unwavering commitment to open source innovation.”
TECH GOES OPEN SOURCE
IBM is looking to open source software as a major force in the future of technology.
The term ‘open source’ refers to software whose source code is freely available. Once downloaded, user can edit, share and use the code, with no copyright restrictions. There are different licenses. These give users different degrees of freedom. The main aim of open source is to encourage experimentation, collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
Freely available source code has been a key driver of several technology deals this year. Microsoft purchased the code-hosting platform GitHub for $7.5bn. Salesforce spent $6.5bn on MuleSoft, which helps businesses link different IT systems together.
Technology giants are aware that customers don’t like closed software. Customers like using and supporting open software rather than closed software. We can see this in the rise of WordPress – now powering 33% of the websites on the web. If you have a WordPress site… Congratulations! you are part of the revolution