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Red Hat adds more distributor and ISV support

Red Hat’s partner programme enhancements look to add to improvements and modular structure that was introduced in 2024

Red Hat has added to the growing list of vendors that have chosen the first weeks of 2025 to announce partner programme enhancements.

The vendor’s focus is on continuing with enhancements announced last year, as well as introducing its Build programme to support those that add their own IP to its products.

The changes were announced in a blogpost penned by Stefanie Chiras, senior vice-president of partner ecosystem success at Red Hat.

“To help Red Hat partners remain agile in this fast-paced industry, in 2024 Red Hat introduced the first phase of updates to its partner programme as part of our ongoing transformation efforts, including a new modular programme framework, standardised incentives and upgraded digital tooling,” she said.

“Since then, we have been focused on making even more enhancements to help partners more seamlessly engage and reach their business goals with Red Hat, all while addressing key customer demands.”

As well as the Build partner programme module, which should appeal to ISVs and SIs in particular, the firm is also streamlining its distributor engagement.

“As part of the Build module, partners will earn points for activities such as co-creating solutions with Red Hat, validating or certifying solutions on Red Hat platforms and developing content and go-to-market plans to take those solutions to customers. The accumulated points will then unlock a range of benefits spanning enablement, sales, marketing and technical support,” she wrote.

On the distributor front, the aim is to encourage greater ties between disties and the partners they work with to expand skills across the channel.

“This will enable deeper business-to-business relationships by empowering partners to select a preferred Red Hat distributor, with whom they can develop strategic planning, and help distributors to more easily allocate investments with their aligned partners to drive shared business growth,” said Chiras.

Red Hat is also incorporating go-to-market activities within the partner programme modules to recognise value-add activities, including the creation of co-branded marketing, demos and proof-of-concept development. Partners will be able to earn points and rewards for marketing activities and for opening up more opportunities.

“By integrating go-to-market activities within the design of partner programme modules – spanning Resell, Distribution, Sell With and Build – Red Hat is able to recognise performance across a more holistic view of activities to more accurately represent a partner’s full engagement with customers and Red Hat,” she said.

The firm also indicated that a fresh year would see an extension of incentives and rebates for Resell and Distribution partners, and that there would be more updates to come over the course of 2025.

“With the latest updates to Red Hat’s global partner engagement experience, we are standardising rebates and incentives for Resell and Distribution partners to achieve greater visibility and more predictable growth. This is a global implementation to provide partners with clear, upfront insights to maximise profitability, more effectively plan sales cycles and strengthen competitive positioning with Red Had,” she wrote.

“The ongoing transformation of Red Hat’s global partner engagement experience is a testament to our commitment in driving an ecosystem-first approach to deliver impactful, tailored solutions for customers. At the core of our strategy is providing greater autonomy for partners to benefit from more choice, clearer growth opportunities and stronger collaboration with each other and Red Hat.”

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