World’s leading open source provider upbeat on Lankan prospects

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
As Sri Lanka attempts to gain momentum in transforming its economy with the help of digitisation, the world’s leading open source provider, Red Hat yesterday expressed confidence in its entrance to the IT landscape boosting the growth pace and efficiency of state and private enterprises.
Visiting senior representatives of the US based entity acknowledged that with open source being the forefront of every major breakthrough, Sri Lanka was an “exciting market that is primed for disruption” and Red Hat is geared to play a key role in its transformation journey.
“In the current context it is open source that has the potential to influence change and enable innovation, two key factors that all governments are after.  
“With the government’s big push in critical infrastructure that would enable digital technologies, the offerings of Red Hat are well positioned to assist in the expansion plans,” said Red Hat India Director Presales Amarjeet Manchandra while addressing journalists in Colombo.
He stressed it was imperative for the government to give open source a “fair chance”, not because it is free, but since it allowed institutions the freedom to transform, develop and continuously without any boundaries. 
In Sri Lanka Red Hat will primarily focus on assisting businesses to speed up its digital transformation in the areas of Banking, Financial services and Insurance (BFSI) telecommunication and government departments. It will also focus on developing an ecosystem of partners to empower a framework for open source technology.
According to Manchandra, Red Hat is upbeat on its prospects in Sri Lanka as it has received “very positive” interest from existing and new customers to extend its service to the island nation. It was also shared that during the initial conversation with policy makers and potential partners from the public and private sectors, had shown strong willingness to embrace open source technology.
“We see Sri Lanka as a serious business territory and we will look into what is required for us to be successful here,” added Red Hat India Director Partner, Alliance and Commercial Sales Neeraj Bhatia.
However, it was stressed that the government must explore the possibility of having a clearly spelled out open source policy as it would help boost the open source adoption.
It is a great opportunity for Sri Lanka to get ahead of the curve in terms of open source adoption across the board. 
Established in 1993 Red Hat is headquartered in North Carolina and has 85 offices across 35 countries. With over 10,000 associates worldwide, Red Hat is the first to be a US $ 2 billion open source company.