November 28 2005 –Toulon, France and Raleigh, North Carolina – Thales computers activities, market leader in providing integrated PowerPC and Pentium-based VME and cPCI COTS embedded solutions to OEMs and system integrators, today announced it has entered into a hardware partner agreement with Red Hat, the world’s leading open source and Linux provider.
Under the agreement, Thales will deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux in embedded defense systems. Thales computers activities also acts as a reseller for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other Red Hat solutions when specific defense and security markets are serviced by the Thales group.
“Associating Red Hat and Thales, this agreement is the first of its kind to bridge business-critical Linux technology with proven expertise of long-term program requirements found in Defense and security applications.” said Alain Albarello, General Manager of Thales’ computers activities. “In the embedded market where the COTS user needs to manage multiple suppliers to solve complex support issues, this type of partnership builds the foundation from which more integrated long-term support services between suppliers can be built.”
In addition to being afforded preferred pricing, the partnership allows Thales Computers to offer several levels of support depending on the customer’s needs, including full platform support where a product’s computer hardware, software and the operating systems are maintained as a single entity by Thales , backed up by Red Hat third level support experts. This saves customer’s valuable time by eliminating the need to contact multiple vendors for assistance.
Scott Crenshaw, Senior Director for Enterprise Linux, Red Hat commented that, “The partnership effectively combines all our technology and market experience into a cohesive and carefully tailored customer offering.
“Not only will businesses enjoy the lower total cost of ownership that comes from the higher degree of stability provided by Linux, they also benefit from better levels of customer care and support across the entire platform resulting from having just a single, consolidated point of reference for both hardware and software vendor,” he continued.
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: www.redhat.com. LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Thales: Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, security and services markets worldwide. The Group employs 60,000 people throughout the world and generated revenues of 10.3 billion euros in 2004.
Thales computers activities include development of commercial and ruggedized VMEbus & CompactPCI multiprocessing solutions based on PowerPC and Pentium microprocessors. Thales’ products are optimized for a wide variety of applications in the military, aerospace, transportation, communications, and industrial markets and are used by customers worldwide, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Bombardier, Toshiba, British Aerospace, Ericsson, Alcatel, Thales Group, and others. For more information about Thales’ full-line of products with the Red Hat operating system, visit Thales Computers’ web site at www.thalescomputers.com.
