Red Hat Linux Services and Software Help iCelebrate.com Meet Holiday E-commerce Rush

Business Wire, Sept 29, 1999

DURHAM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 1999--

Red Hat's On-site Consulting Services and Powerful Open Source

Software Help iCelebrate.com Quickly Launch Holiday and Seasonal

E-commerce Web Site

Red Hat(R), Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT), a leading developer and provider of open source software solutions, today announced that its powerful on-site consulting services worked closely with iCelebrate.com, a complete online resource for holiday, gifts and seasonal-related merchandise, to quickly integrate Red Hat Linux to power a new holiday and seasonal e-commerce Web site.

iCelebrate purchased Red Hat's on-site consulting services to help create the ultimate holiday shopping site, quickly installing, integrating and tuning Red Hat Linux on Oracle database software and Dell systems. iCelebrate provides online shoppers with a complete range of holiday and seasonal merchandise and resources.

"We chose Red Hat because we were looking for the best provider of open source software, support and service for our business needs. Red Hat's on-site consulting experts made it possible for us to meet all of our network requirements and to efficiently implement Red Hat Linux into our systems--in plenty of time for the holiday season," said Justin Anderson, CTO of iCelebrate. "Red Hat Linux provides our site with the scalability and room for growth that iCelebrate needs as we build our business and continue to receive more and more orders over the Internet."

"iCelebrate is gearing up to be the largest and most complete website for holiday and seasonal related merchandise and is expecting a large amount of traffic this holiday season. As such, we knew that we needed to go with a proven leader in the field. We chose Red Hat," Anderson added.

Jupiter Communications estimates more than 10 million users will begin shopping online in 1999--many of whom will make their first purchase during the holiday season. Jupiter also predicts that $6 billion will be spent online during November and December--double what was spent last year.

"iCelebrate is a prime example of how Red Hat Linux and Red Hat's complete family of services provide the performance, reliability, scalability and flexibility needed in today's popular e-commerce applications," said Teresa Spangler, business unit leader, sales of Red Hat, Inc. "Red Hat offers a full range of services needed to create and support the powerful, reliable open source solutions to power intense business and Internet operations."

Developed and offered through its relationship with Collective Technologies (Austin, TX, www.colltech.com), one of the leading expert service and support providers in the United States, Red Hat on-site consulting sets a new standard for enterprise-level support for Linux-based operating systems. With more than 350 dedicated consultants, Red Hat's on-site consulting services provide: on-site consulting; strategy formation; planning; evaluation; classification and organization; training; implementation; recurring operations and audit. Red Hat Linux-based enterprise IT operations can choose anything from initial installation help up to full, ongoing outsourced management of their complete Linux-based information management operation.

Red Hat offers all the services needed to successfully install, integrate, manage and support open source solutions in today's rapidly growing enterprises. In recent months, Red Hat has greatly expanded its support offerings, including international training and certification for Red Hat Linux. In addition, Red Hat announced this month that Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation (NYSE: BCF) purchased support services from Red Hat for its nationwide Linux deployment.

Open Source Momentum

International Data Corp. (IDC) research states that Linux-based operating systems were the fastest-growing server operating environment in 1998, growing more than 190 percent in that year alone and capturing more than 15.8 percent of the 4.4 million revenue shipment server operating environment market.

Red Hat's numerous alliances with industry leaders and the demand for Linux-based applications has created open source support from many of the industry's leading software and hardware manufacturers, including Compaq(R), Computer Associates, Corel, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Netscape, Novell, Oracle(R) and SAP(R). Red Hat Linux runs on Intel, Alpha and Sun SPARC platforms.

About iCelebrate.com

iCelebrate.com (www.icelebrate.com) is your one-stop shopping site for the best selection of holiday and seasonal merchandise, including icicle lights, pre-lit trees and a unique collectibles section, hands down the most vast of its kind in cyberspace. iCelebrate focuses on the five key areas that consumers rate most important during the holidays, namely: decorating, entertaining, gifts, family, and correspondence, encompassing all of that into "seasonal related merchandise and resources."

About Red Hat, Inc.

Founded in 1994, Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT) is a market leader in open source operating system (OS) software and services. Along with its award-winning open source Red Hat Linux OS, Red Hat offers a full line of services, including telephone support, on-site consulting, developer training, certification programs and priority access updates, making Red Hat a leading and complete resource for knowledgeable, innovative, mission-critical open source solutions.