Opennet showcases Red Hat at Gitex

Master distributor participates at DIC community zone to showcase commitment to open source support in the Middle East

UAE, 23 September 2004: Opennet, master distributor for Red Hat in Middle East and Africa, will be participating at Gitex 2004 as part of the DIC Community Zone. The company will be showcasing Red Hat's solutions including its courses and certifications at the show. In addition to being the master distributor, Opennet is also Redhat's official training and certification partner in the region.

"We see a strong trend in the Middle East (and globally) that open source is being adopted by more companies, who are running it simultaneously with other proprietary software," said Tewfik Zitouni, MD, Opennet MEA. "This year we will use the opportunity at Gitex to gauge this increase in awareness in open source, understand the interest and adoption of open source and Red Hat Enterprise Linux in particular."

Opennet will use Gitex to educate end-users on the benefits of open source in terms of time and money, showcase new products from Red Hat including the recently launched desktop solutions. The company will also share some interesting case studies that reflect the growing number of organisations opting for Linux.

This year, at Gitex, Zitouni anticipates a greater interest in the advantages of open source and Linux in particular especially with so many major names including IBM and Oracle committed to developing new solutions with partners like Red Hat.

"As the worldwide leader in Linux, Red Hat is committed to IT solutions based on open source software. We are pleased to offer these solutions with our partner Opennet," said Werner Knoblich, Director Europe Middle East & Africa for Red Hat. "Together we offer customers software, services and support to enable choice and flexibility in their IT infrastructure."

At the show, visitors will get the opportunity to interact with technical experts from Red Hat who will be visiting this region to understand the needs of the Middle East user. Opennet will be offering some of these corporate customers the opportunity to win free migration assessment valued around US$6000.

"Migration assessment allows us to help a company evaluate its existing network infrastructure and the cost savings it would incur by migrating from proprietary software to using open source solutions like Red Hat," pointed out Zitouni. "This gives corporate IT users and consumers the opportunity to compare products and services before making a business decision that gives them a clear choice."

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About Opennet MEA
Opennet MEA is the Master Distributor and certified training & education centre of Red Hat, Inc., the most trusted Linux provider to the enterprise. Opennet MEA was established in late 2003 in Dubai Internet City FZ and intends to work closely with companies and organizations through its Channel Partner Network. Opennet MEA is the Red Hat Master distributor and the Red Hat Certified Training and Education Centre in the following regions and countries: United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Kingdom of Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia and all Africa French speaking countries.

For the past 4 years Opennet MEA has been successfully representing Red Hat Linux in North Africa and has successfully introduced Linux to government agencies and businesses and helped them take full advantage of Open Source Technologies. The Major Share Holder of Opennet is GMH, one of the Top 5 Holdings in Tunisia with more than $ 350 Million of Total Sales in Various Industries for FY'2002.

About Red Hat Inc
Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's Open Source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

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