One of the reasons why Red Hat will be the first billion dollar open-source company is that the company has also looked beyond just Linux to what you can do with Linux on the cloud and thin-client desktops; Java Enterprise Edition and now, with the release of Red Hat Storage Software Appliance, big data.
Big data you ask? Businesses have recently woken up to the fact that, according to IBM we’re being deluged with big data. “Everyday, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data-so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: from sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos posted online, transaction records of online purchases, and from cell phone GPS signals to name a few. This data is big data.”
So how do you manage that level of data? In Red Hat’s case, you buy Gluster, an open-source storage solutions, and use it to build a big data software product built on Linux. As Red Hat stated in its press release, Red Hat Storage Software Appliance “extends the Red Hat solution portfolio with industry-leading capability for managing the storage of unstructured data.”