Red Hathas opened an
open source software support and research centre in Serbia to help
expand the open source market in south eastern Europe.
The centre has been opened in collaboration with Vienna-based IT
services outsourcer VDEL and IBM.
The centre is located at Vrsac, and will provide open source
support, development and educational services to customers,
partners and developers throughout the region.
As part of the Red Hat Premium Support Partner programme, the
centre will service Red Hat's customers in Serbia, Slovenia,
Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania,
Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
The centre will be managed by VDEL. The initiative is a result
of a project initiated in 2005 by the University of Belgrade to
create an incubator for new technologies.
The project was established as part of a development programme
created by the Ministry of Science and Environmental Protection in
Serbia. The first incubation project was started in February 2006,
when IBM, Red Hat and VDEL jointly opened the Linux Innovation and
Education Centre in the Faculty of Organisational Science in the
University of Belgrade.
This initial project provided the education, training and
certification on Red Hat and IBM technologies that provided the
necessary skills for the opening of the new centre at Vrsac.
IBM will provide the new site with access to its technologies
and knowledge-base, enabling the site to eventually offer support
for IBM open source solutions.
The decision to select Vrsac was based on the city’s
geographical location, multi-ethnic and multicultural environment,
existing infrastructure,qualified resources, and the growth
potential of the Serbian market and the surrounding region.
Related article:
Linux alliance formed for business apps
Comment on this article:
computer.weekly@rbi.co.uk