HP inks Red Hat Linux deal

Hewlett Packard (HP) has signed an agreement with Red Hat to become a preferred supplier of the Linux distributor's complete enterprise product line.

The agreement sees HP become a global services provider for Red Hat's Enterprise Linux range, which includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, Enterprise Linux ES and Enterprise Linux WS.

HP said it will support Red Hat's software on Intel's 32bit x86 architectures and 64bit Itanium platforms.

"HP is expanding its relationship with Red Hat to bring enterprise-class functionality and global support to Linux," said Peter Blackmore, executive vice president, HP Enterprise Systems Group.

"Today's announcement builds on our $2bn [£1.3bn] in Linux-based revenue in 2002 and our decade of commitment to the open source and Linux communities."

Al Gillen, senior analyst at IDC, said of the deal: "The new agreement between Red Hat and HP marks an important step in helping to further Linux in the enterprise.

"The combination of world-class support and industry-standard hardware with the price and performance advantages of Linux will appeal to enterprise customers."