30 Minute Interview

“The enterprise sector is moving towards Linux in a big way”

Ellen Carberry Vice-President, Asia Pacific Red Hat

How much do the Indian operations of Red Hat contribute to its global and Asia Pacific outreach? What is your marketing strategy here?

It’s been five years since we are in the Indian market. It is among the top three countries for us in the Asia Pacific region. Right now we are integrating the Indian operations with our global business. On the whole, the Indian market is of utmost priority and importance to us. In terms of Red Hat’s reach, we have seven offices covering the length and breadth of India. Our OEM partners in the country include IBM, HCL Infosystems and Acer, while Wipro Infotech and HCL are our SI partners in India.

Creating awareness on Open Source and Linux has been a challenge in India. How do you plan to tackle it?

Awareness was a major issue when we started operations in India, but over a period of time we managed to find acceptability and awareness of Open Source technology. Now our continued commercial success is driving our customers and convincing them.

Apart from that, we are devising initiatives like a partners education programme. Partners are the most important aspect of our marketing strategy, and they play a great role in creating awareness about our technology.

What is Red Hat’s target in India? Which sectors are showing interest in Open Source technology?

We are targeting the enterprise sector in a big way. The other segments that are showing great interest in Open Source are BFSI, telecom, government and manufacturing.

Why has Linux not made significant impact on the desktop front? Are you making any efforts in that direction?

Easy usability was an issue earlier but now it has been taken care of. It is a reality that Linux-based computers are the most user-friendly machines. As you know, the enterprise sector is moving towards Linux in a big way. People are coming to Linux because it has many features like security, cost savings, managing the computer and so on. We are sure that the desktop segment will be attracted to it in a big way.

Tell us about the e-governance project with the Maharashtra Government.

The Government of Maharashtra evaluated several options before choosing to standardise on Red Hat. They had used proprietary versions of Unix but that was an expensive affair for them. They later opted for Open Source because of the availability of its source code. As for Open Source, they have chosen Red Hat for deploying a solution. The government IT team has developed a database, groupware and office application suite based on the Linux, Apache, DB2 and PHP architectures for its basic computing needs. This suite is being rolled out at 380 locations in the state.

The e-governance applications that have been developed are Koshvahini (treasury management), Setu (computerisation of Citizen Facilitation Centres), Document Journey Management System and Land Records Management System. The greatest reward for us is that the ministry is happy with the deployment.

— Faiz Askari