Red Hat CEO pushes open-source AI, bullish on APAC market

US-based enterprise open-source provider Red Hat announced that the company is poised for a new era of artificial intelligence (AI) for the enterprise, expecting significant growth momentum in the APAC market. During a select media briefing on Wednesday, Red Hat CEO Matt Hicks emphasised that markets like India, China, and other Southeast Asian countries are displaying tremendous growth potential.

He believes that the rapid adoption of digital technologies, fueled by a vibrant startup ecosystem, presents significant opportunities across various sectors. “In recent years, there has been an increased demand for hybrid cloud solutions and AI-driven innovation, reinforcing Red Hat's commitment to open-source technologies for digital transformation in these markets,” he said.

The company has established a co-creation team in Asia Pacific to support independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators, and other partners in delivering solutions to customers. This has allowed the company to tap into verticals such as government, manufacturing, and automotive, expanding beyond its traditional strongholds in the financial services and telecom industries.

Red Hat has a long history in India, having established its research and development centre in Pune in the early 2000s, which has grown from 10 employees to over 2,000. The company now has offices in Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata, with a global headcount of around 20,000.

Acquired by IBM in 2019 for approximately $35 billion, the company has made a series of AI-related announcements at this year’s Red Hat Summit in Boston, focusing on simplifying deployment at scale.

A key announcement was the AI Inference Server, a platform that enables businesses to quickly and cost-effectively run AI models with real-time data analysis and insight delivery.

The company also announced the general availability of Red Hat OpenShift Lightspeed, a generative AI-based virtual assistant integrated with its OpenShift platform, designed to enhance the deployment and management of application platforms across hybrid cloud environments.

Red Hat introduced a curated catalogue of pre-tested, third-party AI models, including popular LLMs like Llama, Mistral, and Granite, streamlining deployment and accelerating value delivery. The platform supports distributed AI processing across multiple servers and accelerators, developed in collaboration with Intel, NVIDIA, and Google, enabling businesses to handle larger workloads.

Addressing security concerns, Hicks mentioned that Red Hat integrates advanced security features, including post-quantum cryptography, to ensure data protection and compliance. The company's open approach provides vendor flexibility and cloud provider choice.

These offerings, according to Hicks, aim to facilitate the transition from AI experimentation to tangible results by accelerating deployment, reducing risk and complexity, lowering costs, enabling scalability, and enhancing security and compliance. He added that these tools are already assisting organisations in finance and aviation to modernise operations, improve efficiency, and launch AI-powered services.