Why Red Hat uses the power of co-creation and collaboration to obtain value

CRN Australia spoke to two Red Hat executives at its Partner Summit about how multiple partners are essential to driving value.

When Red Hat co-creates and uses the power of multiple partners, they obtain real value from objectives, according to several of their Australian executives.

Co-creation is multiple partners coming together to build solutions for customers, where those solutions are scalable and repeatable.

At the recent Red Hat Summit in Sydney, CRN Australia spoke to two Aussie Red Hat executives about how Red Hat uses co-creation to enable partners.

Garry Gray, senior director, and head of ecosystem co-creation and marketplace, APJ, Red Hat said the company has been co-creating with partners for a long time.

“We've put co-selling initiatives around [solutions] and sales plays that we create for those solutions,” he said.

“What we're finding is that the real value is when you bring multiple partners together. Not just us and one of our partners, but maybe us, one of our systems integration partners, an ISV partner, maybe a cloud provider or an OEM partner.

“And really create something where every partner has got an investment in it, and then you make noise around [it].”

Gray highlighted that not one organisation has the technology to solve all of their customer’s problems.

“But if you collaborate together and leverage each other's main expertise then you can drive the best outcomes,” he said.

“I know that sounds a little bit cliche, what the customers are asking us for is not technology, they're asking us for the outcomes. That's what as partners, we need to be able to offer one another and then deliver for the customers.”

Gray said their partnership initiative at Red Hat is a lot more than simply co-creation.

“Co-creation, in my opinion, by itself, is incomplete. We can create the best solutions and the best technologies, bring them all together and innovate it,” he said.

“But if you don't, then put demand gen activities together, if you don't put co-selling motions together, if you don't put it in the right marketplaces, you never do anything meaningful with it.”

What they did was create a co-creation initiative that began in APAC, Gray said.

"It began as a bit of skunk works, truth be told, in ANZ, but it's now APAC wide, and we've got a formal framework around it. We've got investment that we're making in each of those stages with partners,” he added.

An example of co-creation is a partnership Red Hat has with solution provider Datacom and Dell Technologies.

John Nelson, head of ecosystem, Australia and New Zealand, Red Hat explained that looking at the DNA and the footprint and how that came about, it's three organisations, both very separate, aiming to solve a very pertinent and relevant customer challenge.

Datacom uses Red Hat’s AI to solve problems for its end users.

“Here are two organisations that came to us and said, we think this has got legs effectively. So now what they tell me is where OpenShift AI Dell's proposition all their equipment, as well as what Datacom presents itself as the integrator of bringing all these parties together,” Nelson said.

“The centre of gravity is all about the customer, and when we take this to market, I am told that these solutions that is built between the tri-party, is certainly a growth engine.”

Red Hat and Virtualisation

Speaking about the trends emerging in the ANZ market, Nelson at Red Hat highlighted the growth in popularity of virtualisation in the industry.

He said reflecting on the industry trend around virtualisation, he sees it shifting and influencing into most routes.

“Gray talked about not one single vendor can solve all the problems challenges the customers have,” he said.

“We've seen the ecosystem really rally around the virtualisation options and the OpenShift virtualisation for us has grown by 178 percent year on year from 2024 from the customer acquisition perspective,

“And then 250 percent increase in virtual machines managed by OpenShift virtualisation.”

What Nelson is excited about is seeing that continuing.

“Where we're seeing that motion certainly accelerate, and we're seeing that partners are building practices in capability and capacity to address the demand that's in the market,” he said.

“That's still a very forefront thing in with all the noise out of AI, traditional motion still continues. I'm super excited about what partners are going to deliver for our customers in that space.”

Message to partners

Speaking to partners in ANZ, Nelson said Red Hat is “customer first, partners always”.

“That lens hasn't changed, and we're doing more of that with the partner enabled programs and the tools to now allow them to be successful in the field,” he said.

“Our strategic pillars absolutely resonate with that notion, and we're showing up that way with them.

“[The Red Hat summit] today is a clear example of that. Every Red Hat session here had a partner validating their point of view and how their experience was in the field. So customer first, partner always still continues for us,” he concluded.