Red Hat Achieves Defense Department COE Certification

Defense Information Systems Agency recognizes Red Hat Linux Advanced Server's enterprise security and interoperability strengths.

E-GOV WEB ENABLED GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE, WASHINGTON, DC—Feb. 11, 2003—Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT), the world's premier open source and Linux provider, today announced at the eGov Event in Washington, DC that Red Hat Linux Advanced Server is the first Linux platform to achieve Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Common Operating Environment (COE) certification. COE is a DoD software security and interoperability specification and is broadly recognized as a critical computing standard across the U.S. Government. Red Hat Linux Advanced Server achieved certification running on IBM eServer® xSeries® 330.

Michael Tiemann, Chief Technical Officer at Red Hat, will deliver a keynote at the E-Gov Web Enabled Government Conference today in Washington, DC. Tiemann's session at the event will focus on explaining the importance of architecture in government IT infrastructure and why COE compliance for Linux is an excellent example of establishing a supportable open source technology foundation.

"The Air Force's Electronics Systems Command (ESC) applauds adoption of industry-driven standards," said Matt Mleziva, program director, Defense Information Infrastructure for the United States Air Force. "The Department of Defense (DoD) can now achieve the required level of conformance so vital to joint warfare by embracing the self-governance standards created by the Linux community. This will allow the DoD to remain current with commercial technology innovations while using the self-governance model of the Linux community. "

The Defense Department certification is broadly recognized within the U.S. Federal Government as one of the most rigorous computing certifications to obtain. This prestigious certification establishes Red Hat Linux Advanced Server as an approved DoD mission-critical operating system and sends a clear message to all Federal agencies to confidently move forward with broader Red Hat infrastructure deployments. The value Linux brings to government IT architecture and infrastructure are scalability, security and flexibility in heterogeneous computing environments.

"The COE certification of Red Hat Linux Advanced Server opens low-cost computing solution avenues to Federal agencies for new open source server deployments," said Jim Stallings, general manager, Linux at IBM. "Combined with industry-leading server, software and services offerings from IBM, this certification empowers Federal decision makers to leverage the superior security and interoperability Linux is able to deliver in mission-critical environments at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions."

"By Red Hat Linux Advanced Server becoming COE compliant, the federal government will now be able to take full advantage of the world-class solutions Oracle and Red Hat provide enterprises," said Mary Ann Davidson, chief security officer at Oracle. "With this announcement, Oracle will pursue Oracle9i Real Application Clusters segmentation on COE-certified Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, resulting in a highly scalable, low cost, reliable infrastructure solution."

"COE-certified Red Hat Linux Advanced Server will allow Defense programs and other government agencies to realize the same price-performance advantage that industry-standard HP ProLiant servers running Linux deliver to the enterprise," according to Judy Chavis, WorldWide Linux Director, HP Industry Standard Servers.

"The fact that Red Hat was able to achieve COE compliance for Red Hat Linux Advanced Server expels yet another myth about the enterprise readiness of open source software," said Michael Tiemann, CTO at Red Hat. "Red Hat Linux Advanced Server is a trusted platform for enterprise infrastructure and will now offer the same values to the government. The COE Program's inclusion of LSB aligns with the platform standards accepted by the Linux community. This is also yet another demonstration of how Red Hat's open source solution put the theory of open standards into practice."

In addition to the cost, performance, and flexibility advantages associated with running Linux, government customers will now have access to a series of additional COE certification benefits, including: Investment Protection: Adoption of Linux Standard Base (LSB) ensures future version compatibility for Linux deployments. Software Quality: The LSB Application Binary Interface (ABI) level enhances software development quality and reliability. Application Portability: GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME) and Openmotif provide for extensible user interfaces and management, as well as a migration path for porting legacy Motif Unix applications to Linux.

Red Hat will showcase Federal government focused Linux solutions with IBM during the E-Gov Web Enabled Government conference eGov event this week. For more information on Red Hat events and exhibits, please visit http://www.redhat.com/index.html or call 888-2-REDHAT.

About Red Hat, Inc.
Red Hat is the world's premier open source and Linux provider. Red Hat is headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. and has offices worldwide. Please visit Red Hat on the Web at http://www.redhat.com/index.html.

About the Defense Department COE certification:
The Defense Department COE certification is mandated by the Defense Department Joint Technical Architecture for operating systems to be considered for deployment on Command and Control, Computers, Communications, and Intelligence (C4I) systems. Administered by DISA, the Defense Information Infrastructure (DII) COE-Kernel Platform Compliance (KPC) program certifies that operating systems:

Provide services to applications software through required Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Present specific appearance and behavior (look and feel as well as functionality)

Execute government custom code with desired behavior

Demonstrate interoperability and services for data interchange

Provide security features and security configuration checks

Forward-Looking Statements
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