From The Manila Times

Appoints MSI-ECS as distributor to accelerate adoption of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
and expand ecosystem of open source partners

Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the appointment of MSI-ECS (Phils) Inc. as its distributor. MSI-ECS is expected to grow the market for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, increase enterprise adoption of Red Hat virtualization and JBoss middleware technology, and expand the ecosystem of open source partners
in the Philippines.

MSI-ECS has more than 500 resellers in the Philippines. Its established channel network will support Red Hat as it seeks to deepen its commitment and expand its market in the Philippines. As the leading distributor of IT products and solutions in the Philippines, MSI-ECS represents major brands such as IBM and HP which are also Red Hat partners. The company is part of ECS Holdings, a regional ICT leader in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

"We recognize that to be a winner in the Philippines, Red Hat needs a very strong local partner. With their extensive industry experience, reseller network, established regional presence, MSI-ECS has the right combination of skills and reach to lead the open source charge in the Philippines together with Red Hat," said Teong Eng Guan, Red Hat General Manager for ASEAN.

"Red Hat is the No. 1 open source company in providing value. We
deliver value by bringing the benefits of open source computing into an enterprise environment and through building an integrated ecosystem of hardware, independent software vendors, systems integrators and value added partners in the markets where we do business. This is also our goal in the Philippines," added Teong.

Through the subscription
model, Red Hat delivers to customers technical support services,
including phone or web support, for their open source deployment in the
enterprise. The subscription model provides customers with a
predictable cost structure and the latest technologies through
consistent product updates. Customers receive technical and business
value over the life of a subscription and enjoy improved product
features without having to pay continuous upgrade licensing fees.

"As the leading distributor in the Philippines, MSI-ECS boasts of an extensive product portfolio. Adding open source solutions to our technology offerings creates more choices for our resellers by expanding their portfolio of market-leading solutions and thus
increasing their business opportunities. As the open source leader, Red
Hat is the natural choice to complement our existing range," said Jimmy
Go, President of MSI-ECS.

Red Hat enjoys leadership in
the banking and financial services and telco industries in the
Philippines, and is looking to service the government sector.

Red Hat also has two Advanced Business Partners in the Philippines — Ayala System Technology, Inc. (ASTI) and Ubaldo Reidenbach Solutions Inc. Both companies deliver business applications built on open source software. ASTI, a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation and an IT systems integrator, has been responsible for introducing open source technologies to the Ayala group of companies and its customers. Ubaldo Reidenbach Solutions offers email hosting services and enterprise resource planning solutions.

In addition to building its ecosystem of business partners, Red Hat is also helping to build open source skills in the Philippines. Earlier
this year, Red Hat established a partnership with Asia Pacific College
of the Philippines to introduce Red Hat Academy curriculum, an
established programme for teaching open source and Linux skills to
students in the Philippines.
-- Tech Times Online