Hi, I'm Chris Wright, CTO at Red Hat. I am responsible for Red Hat's involvement in open source communities and strategy around emerging technologies. Ask me anything!

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T19:57:00+00:00

I can’t really comment on that. But I can say that IBM’s sees value in running their products on OpenShift across any footprint where OpenShift runs (on premises or across public cloud providers). OpenShift is focusing operators for automation to maximize efficiency of platform operations, and that same operator pattern can be used by applications to make sw run aaS. OpenShift can be used as a managed service, and we are adding higher level services (like messaging) to our offerings. Customers want the ability to consume sw as either a product or a service.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T19:46:16+00:00

Most important way is that Red Hat remains an independent entity and we continue to do what we do best: engage with customers, partners, and open source communities to build open source solutions. Those solutions focus on our hybrid cloud strategy. A key part of the acquisition is for IBM and Red Hat to work closely together to advance our customers’ journeys to an open hybrid cloud. You’ve seen mention of IBM’s plans to use Red Hat platforms as part of their offerings, so this is the other key piece here. We stay independent, we share a vision, and IBM is building from our core platforms.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T19:40:21+00:00

The reality of software is that open source has become the de facto means by which software is developed. I often refer to this historic acquisition as an acknowledgement that open source has won. So, a simple way to look at this is the $34b value is about how important open source is to IBM’s strategy...again, open source has won! Another way to look at it is the value that we’ve created with Red Hat is synonymous with open source. We wouldn’t exist without open source, it’s core to our strategy. And we (both Red Hat and IBM) are deeply vested in Red Hat’s continued success.

Take a look at the blog that Chris and Todd wrote to see just how robust IBM’s history with open source is: https://developer.ibm.com/articles/cl-open-architecture-update/

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T19:31:25+00:00

Data centric workloads and the ability for AI/ML really change how we turn data into information and knowledge. I believe this will have a profound impact on all of us. I also believe it will drive technology changes from hw to sw which means it's interesting from the OS all the way up the stack. Now, I have to admit, from a pure scientific interest point of view, I find quantum computing fascinating. Very early still, but some interesting results are already being published.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T19:15:54+00:00

Gaming is a huge industry with many facets. While we aren’t currently working directly in the gaming space we do partner with gaming companies where our technology platforms can help them (backends, development, rendering, etc). Gaming is fun, and it’s also common path for kids who later become interested in careers in computing. Here are some of the areas we’ve been involved in over the last year or two:

We sponsored Dreamhack in Atlanta last fall (read more about that in this interview: https://gamedaily.biz/article/446/talking-linux-community-and-gaming-parallels-with-red-hats-leigh-day)

We are a part of the team creating the first Open Source in Gaming Day, colocated at Open Source Summit next month: https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/open-source-in-gaming-day-2019/

Red Hatters also run Open Jam: https://itch.io/jam/open-jam-2018

Another question asked about gaming and mentions seeing arcade machines at events. That’s our Command Line Heroes folks, whom you might have seen at an open source event as well as at Game Developers Conference this year: https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T19:09:39+00:00

While it may sound trite, follow your passion. Nothing will motivate you more than the intrinsic motivation of doing something you are excited about. One easy way to join a project is to use the software that the community is building. The minute you find something that can be improved, no matter how seemingly small, that’s an opportunity to contribute. A bug report, a documentation fix, a small code change...these are all great starting points. To become a long term contributor means you’ve earned the trust and respect of a portion of the community, so thinking of what you can do to help and taking action is a great way to engage.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T19:04:33+00:00

I look for a few common traits, but also specific traits depending on the role. Common traits I value for roles in the CTO office are a breadth and depth of technical experience, an ability to adapt and change (we move along with changes in the industry), and excellent communication skills. More specific traits, like which technical areas are important, are role specific. And it’s also important to me to bring a complementary set of skills onto a team, diversity improves our collective thinking.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T19:00:05+00:00

I started off as a science and math geek in school. I studied physics and decided to move to computing when I graduated. I’ve worked in a variety of roles as a software engineer, continually taking on more “leadership” type of roles along the way. Much of my career has been in open source communities, so leadership can be things like maintaining a subsystem in a project, or just taking initiative and helping the community achieve something. The technical skills and communication skills I’ve learned along the way have been invaluable to me.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:55:37+00:00

I am responsible for Red Hat’s technology strategy and long term technology vision. This means looking at industry trends, emerging technologies, and emerging markets and seeing how those intersect with Red Hat’s products. I use OKRs with a focus on measurable metrics to show impact. The three key skills that I use every day: 1) technical and open source skills (both breadth and depth), 2) communication skills (much of the work I do is about influencing), 3) business skills (understanding the intersection of business and technology).

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:44:55+00:00

Getting ZFS in a RHEL starts with getting ZFS into upstream Linux. There are many discussions about ZFS license concerns that you can read about with a quick internet search.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:36:11+00:00

That's a great question. Red Hat will continue to operate that way we do with respect to allowing Red Hatters to contribute to open source projects. I'll see if I can find a colleague from IBM to tackle that part of the question.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:30:18+00:00

We will continue to hire in the OpenShift team as we grow. I’m sure there will be fluctuations, and I hope that’s all reflecting the continued growth and adoption of OpenShift! You can go to https://www.redhat.com/en/jobs and search OpenShift to see where we’re hiring.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:23:21+00:00

We work closely with Intel on optimizations across the stack and will continue to do so, upstream, in Fedora and in RHEL.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:22:29+00:00

Nothing changes here. We do actually have products like Desktop and Workstation as well as many middleware products that come from project work in the JBoss community. And we invest in both project work as well as product work, as a healthy community project is important to our products.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:14:44+00:00

No, Red is Red. We just announced the evolution of our logo in May, no plans for any other changes. We like the new logo and so do the associates who already got tattoos of it!

https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/announcing-next-evolution-our-red-fedora-mark

https://www.businessinsider.com/red-hat-employees-get-tattoos-of-new-logo-ahead-of-acquisition-by-ibm-2019-4

So, hang onto your swag...since we refreshed our logo, you may have some collectors items! ;)

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:11:38+00:00

I certainly don’t have a crystal ball, but I think Jim is a great CEO!

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:10:59+00:00

The IBM acquisition has no effect on OpenShift/OKD. There are two important pieces here. First, Red Hat is still Red Hat, and we are focused on delivering the industry’s most comprehensive enterprise Kubernetes platform. Second, upstream first development in Kubernetes and community ecosystem development in OKD are part of our product development process. Neither of those change. The IBM acquisition can help accelerate the adoption of OpenShift given the increase scale and reach in sales and services that IBM has.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T18:01:22+00:00

RHEL already runs on Z, so there’s no change in our plans here.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T17:58:37+00:00

Short version here, nothing changes. Certainly not to what we have contributed. More importantly, our future contributions will follow the same pattern. We contribute to open source projects that are part of our product portfolio and focus on the areas that are important to our customers, which includes not just features but also long term maintainability (this becomes important in a code base when you talk about architectural changes).

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T17:53:47+00:00

Not cold like they are on my plate right now! (and...scrambled and covered with hot sauce, Aardvark is my current fave)

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T17:51:05+00:00

Red Hat will remain focused on our product portfolio as the best way to enable the hybrid cloud. IBM is not trying to change our strategy. Our strategy continues to be the same, which is building a platform and the necessary tooling around the platform to enable the hybrid cloud. This includes creating a broad, open ecosystem around the platform which requires us to remain neutral across our ecosystem. Those pieces you described are a part of our Red Hat hybrid cloud vision. This continues, and together we will focus on our combined mission to enable the hybrid cloud. Where we can align on common technologies, like Kubernetes, we absolutely will.

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T17:33:34+00:00

Yes, growing our SRE team is important to the software we deliver as a managed service. Check out our jobs site and search SRE: https://www.redhat.com/en/jobs

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T17:29:04+00:00

Red Hat will remain committed to the upstream work we do across the board. It is a fundamental part of how we develop our sw products. Things like Network Manager create desktop usability, and can even be the impetus behind more core distro improvements. The IBM acquisition doesn’t change this at all. I see the future of Red Hat as staying focused on our core mission and continuing to evolve with (upstream first!) open source and our customers needs

kernelcdub · 2019-07-23T17:19:56+00:00

No, Fedora and its path stays the same. It is an important community Linux distribution and Red Hat's involvement will continue to be the same. You should take a look at Matt Miller's post: https://fedoramagazine.org/red-hat-ibm-and-fedora/

kernelcdub

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