DLT SOLUTIONS has confirmed that it will supply the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) with Red Hat software and services.
"We continue to see significant interest in the Department of Defense (DoD) for Red Hat solutions," DLT CEO Rick Marcotte told The News. "The ability of Red Hat enterprise products to drive down software support expenses and total cost of ownership for enterprise IT applications is particularly important in these times of tight public sector budgets and spending scrutiny. Customers who have migrated from proprietary software to open source solutions from Red Hat have found that standards-based open source software delivered via a Red Hat subscription offers them high-value, high-performance, high-security and best-in-class support."
 The lucrative contract, worth an estimated $18 million, stipulates the provision of various Red Hat services, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) software to the entire DoD community.
"This contract award is another testament to DLT's successful partnership with Red Hat and its enterprise Linux solution set. We are looking forward to continuing to provide our present and future DoD clients with the products, service and support critical to their success," added Marcotte.
It should be noted that Red Hat and Microsoft recently announced a collaborative effort to ensure virtualisation interoperability. The deal will allow allow Windows Server to run as a "guest" on Red Hat virtualisation, while Red Hat Enterprise Linux is expected to do the same in a Windows environment.
Scott Crenshaw, a Red Hat VP, termed the agreement a "step forward for the industry" and emphasised that it would not compromise the company's "commitment to open source."
"One of the big questions on the minds of many members of the open source community is whether Red Hat has compromised its ideals," wrote Crenshaw in a blog post. "Nothing could be further from the truth. Red Hat's growth, and its differentiation, come from its belief in and commitment to, the open source community model. It is our view – and this view is institutionalised throughout our company – that we have to serve the community, as well as our customers, shareholders, and employees. The moment we stop doing so, we eliminate the differentiation which drives our growth."
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