Red Hat announces range of partner programe enhancements

Red Hat has announced several enhancements to its partner programme designed to increase support for top-tier partners and to encourage more to gain certifications. This is the second time this year Red Hat has introduced more functionality for its partner programme as it delivers on its commitment to evolve support to arm partners with the tools they need to grow.

Stefanie Chiras, senior vice-president of partner ecosystem success at Red Hat, penned a blog outlining the changes and the motivation behind their introduction: “The epoch-making shift in the technology landscape, fuelled by breakthroughs in AI and the dynamic world of virtualisation, is reshaping every industry.

“Red Hat’s partner ecosystem is pivotal in helping customers navigate these seismic shifts and capitalise on emerging opportunities, which is why we are continuously refining Red Hat’s global partner engagement experience with an ecosystem-driven approach to IT modernisation. Our transformation is rooted in three business enablers: a globally unified partner programme, streamlined partner incentives and an enhanced digital experience.”

As part of the latest changes, Red Hat is rolling out a Specialised Partner programme, which has evolved out of the piloted Practice Accelerator scheme. The idea is to provide clear routes for the channel to develop and then promote their skills in key areas.

“The Red Hat Specialised Partner Programme recognises partners’ deep technical expertise and proven service capabilities to support the full customer lifecycle, aligning with strategic technologies and streamlining go-to-market efforts for partners.” she wrote.

“With this evolution, Red Hat is extending the available partner specialisations beyond Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat OpenShift to encompass additional products like Red Hat Enterprise Linux [RHEL] and RHEL AI.”

Existing specialisations for Red Hat OpenShift will be divided into specific areas, covering virtualisation, containers and application development.

At the same time, Red Hat has indicated it is introducing a Partner Demand Centre that provides access to the vendor’s campaigns and demand generation platform.

“This enables partners to autonomously launch ready-made marketing campaigns and to create workshop and webinar registration pages, promoting joint Red Hat solutions to their customers and prospects,” wrote Chiras. “This platform is designed to provide partners with assisted control over their marketing efforts, providing them with joint branding and messaging.”

Chiras said that the changes would provide greater autonomy for partners as well as more choice, and it should encourage more collaboration between the vendor and its channel.

Finally, the latest programme updates also included an enhancement of the rebate strategy to add more areas where partners can be rewarded.

“Red Hat continues to enhance our rebate strategy by extending and adding new rebate opportunities, aiming to increase partner profitability and drive product growth, particularly with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat OpenShift,” said Chiras. “This is complemented by a simplification of digital tools to improve the partner user experience, including enhanced tooling designed to provide greater autonomy and visibility for partners.”

The vendor last enhanced its programme at the start of the year, when it added more distributor and ISV support. Speaking back in January, Chiras said that the firm was committed to ensuring its partners were able to react to a fast-paced environment and it would continue to enhance its support and build on an approach that’s been going for more than a year.

“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.