Never shy about taking on new markets, Red Hat has struck a deal with the University of North Carolina under which it will encourage the use of open source technology in healthcare research, biotechnology, bioinformatics and public policy. The deal follows a larger announcement by Red Hat in which it launched its Enterprise Healthcare Platform in cooperation with McKesson and Intel.
Under the terms of the partnership, Red Hat will establish a location on UNC's research campus, and work with both public and private-sector tenants there to help them look at open source options. (Sounds like the tenants will be a bit of a captive audience!) Red Hat has been working to spark broader discussions of open source technology since at least 1999, when it opened a non-profit organization--a grantmaker and think tank--known as the Red Hat Center for Open Source. The company and three large shareholders kicked in $8 million to jump start the non-profit's operations, intended to offer support for varied open-source related projects.
To learn more about the agreement:
- read this News.com item
- see the press release from Red Hat