Red Hat Enterprise Linux Stability Drives Demand for More Flexibility in Long-term Operating System Deployments

Red Hat extends life cycle of its industry-standard operating system to ten years

MALAYSIA, Kuala Lumpur – 8 February 2012 – Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced it has extended the production life cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6 from seven to 10 years in response to enterprise customer demand. Enterprise customers now have additional deployment alternatives for their Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system implementations as they plan the future of their strategic IT deployments.

“Enterprise customers require flexibility when planning strategic, long-term technology deployments,” said Jim Totton, vice president and general manager, Platform Business Unit, Red Hat. “Many of our customers have come to realize that standardizing on Red Hat Enterprise Linux improves efficiency and helps lower costs. With a ten-year life cycle, customers now have additional choices when planning their Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployment and overall IT strategy. We are pleased that customers are looking far into the future with Red Hat.”

For some IT environments, upgrading to a new version of an operating system requires detailed advance planning. Red Hat extended the Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle so customers can remain on their current version longer. For many years, enterprises have chosen Red Hat as their strategic operating system provider because of the functionality and product stability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This, coupled with support and the broad ecosystem of certified hardware platforms and ISV applications from Red Hat partners, makes it highly suitable for long-term deployments. With the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle, customers will benefit from continued feature enhancements while Red Hat's ABI and API compatibility leverages their application investments.

For more information about Red Hat Enterprise Linux life cycle, visit www.redhat.com/rhel/lifecycle.