Red Hat results underscore open source growth

Further evidence that the economic slowdown is fuelling open source growth was provided today by vendor Red Hat’s full-year results.

The open source software goliath saw revenues rise by 25 per cent to $652.6m (£447m) in its fiscal 2009 to 28 February. Subscription revenues – often seen as a decent litmus for future business – rose by 20 per cent to $541.2m.

The vendor banked a net profit based on generally accepted accounting principles of $78.7m, compared with $76.7m a year earlier.

Although Red Hat's sales growth slowed to 18 per cent in the final quarter, chief executive Jim Whitehurst argued that the current climate is prompting more organisations to turn to open source.

“Our value proposition is even more compelling in a challenging economic environment, and we believe that's a key driver to our solid financial results and market share gains,” he said.

This backs up recent research by IDC – sponsored by Red Hat’s rival SUSE Linux – which found that more than half of the IT executives are planning to accelerate Linux adoption.

New York-listed Red Hat tied up more than 100 deals worth more than $250,000 during the year.

Whitehurst added: “For the full fiscal year, we achieved an impressive combination of 25 per cent revenue growth, 24 per cent non-GAAP operating income growth and operating cash flow of $236m, while renewing 100 per cent of our top 25 customers up for renewal each quarter.”