Red Hat brings the 'Power' of open source to Sri Lanka

Red Hat, a provider of open source solutions, hosted a half-day technology event in Colombo at Hotel Cinnamon Lakeside on Wednesday. Under the theme of 'Power of Participation', the event discussed how enterprises can transform and innovate by learning, networking, and collaborating via open source technology.

The keynote address was delivered by Amarjeet Manchanda, Director, Presales, Red Hat India, who spoke about the potential of open source to influence change and enable innovation. He emphasised that open source is now at the forefront of every major breakthrough. According to him, Sri Lanka is an exciting market that's primed for disruption and Red Hat is geared to play an important part in this transformation journey.

Through this event Red Hat hopes to connect and educate potential customers, clients, influencers and policy makers of its services and unique offerings in open source. The event gathered some of the brightest minds in the country to discuss the power of open source and best practices that can help accelerate innovation in Sri Lanka's digital economy.

Red Hat's primary focus will be to help businesses accelerate digital transformation in the areas of BFSI, telecommunications and government In Sri Lanka. With the government's big push in critical infrastructure to enable digital technologies, Red Hat's innovative offerings are well positioned to help its expansion plans in Sri Lanka.

Red Hat will also focus on developing an ecosystem of partners to empower a framework for open source technologies in Sri Lanka. Industry interactions will also be held in academic institutions to help students understand careers in IT and open source.

Discussing about the event, Amarjeet further shared, "Red Hat is optimistic about the opportunities in Sri Lanka and has received a very positive interest from existing customers and new ones to extend Red Hat's services in this region."

He further highlighted that during their initial conversations with policymakers, partners and customers there has been a strong willingness to embrace open source technology.

During his session, Neeraj Bhatia, Director, Partner, Alliances and Commercial Sales, Red Hat India, said, "Red Hat is one of the most engaged and collaborative partners in the ecosystem that is driving innovation and enabling businesses to benefit from the digital technologies. Partners lead and deliver a high share of Red Hat's business in the region and the company is keen to invest in strengthen its existing partner relations while also forging new ones in a nascent market like Sri Lanka.