Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced Leading with Containers, an initiative for Red Hat Business Partners in EMEA to help them tap into the growing container platform market. The initiative supports and accelerates the commitment of select Red Hat Business Partners driving the success of Red Hat OpenShift, the industry’s leading enterprise Kubernetes platform.

According to The 2021 State of Enterprise Open Source: A Red Hat Report, container usage over the next 12 months is expected to rise by 74% in EMEA, with companies building their hybrid cloud strategies based on container platform technologies.

Red Hat launched the Leading with Containers initiative in EMEA to help Red Hat Business Partners build on this growth and establish themselves as technology leaders and trusted advisors for their customers. Leading with Containers includes two components: a partner specialization called ‘Red Hat Container Platform Specialist,’ and a Sales Accelerator program that offers additional benefits for Container Platform Specialist partners that meet further requirements and want to accelerate their commitment to Red Hat OpenShift by pursuing a specific business plan. By joining the Leading with Containers initiative, partners can benefit from:

• Differentiation as leaders in the container market through a new partner specialization badge
• Comprehensive enablement offerings to increase container platform skills
• Dedicated marketing content and sales tools to address container customers
• Support mechanisms to accompany partners in the complete sales cycle, including consulting support to drive container adoption
• New incentives to increase the profitability of partners in the form of exclusive purchasing conditions and investment funds

A growing number of partners in EMEA have achieved Red Hat Container Platform Specialist status by completing accreditations for sales, technical and delivery expertise around hybrid cloud infrastructure and cloud native development.

In addition, Red Hat recently updated its partner program for solution providers in EMEA. Red Hat introduced a simplified set of rules and more flexibility to choose from a wide range of middleware certifications for partners to achieve Red Hat Advanced Business Partner or Red Hat Premier Business Partner status. Developer subscriptions are also available for all partner specializations at a discounted rate.

Supporting Quotes

Petra Heinrich, vice president, Partners & Alliances EMEA, Red Hat

“Looking at the tremendous growth potential in the container market, I am very proud that we have such a large network of highly qualified and dedicated Red Hat Advanced and Premier Business Partners. With this initiative, we can help our partners become trusted advisors and technology experts to help Red Hat customers succeed with their hybrid cloud journey.”

David Santafé, BL director, Infrastructure Services, Inetum

“Having the right tools and materials is key when our customers ask us about the top container platforms. Red Hat’s Leading with Containers initiative helps Inetum get closer to our customers while improving the way we provide our offering in this fast growing market. As a Red Hat Premier Business Partner, we feel better positioned to support the container evolution for customers.”