Open Source in Latin America
by Colin Dodd
Matt Asay talks to Julian Somodi, Red Hat’s general manager for Latin America.
Asay: Latin America has always been difficult for North American and European software companies. Between piracy and comparatively low budgets for technology, we’ve struggled to know how to do business in Latin America. You seem to see an opportunity, and have been closing some big customers like the Brazilian Federal Court. Why?
Somodi: The very things that make Latin America difficult for traditional software businesses make them ideal for an open-source business like Red Hat’s. Our business depends on local support. For an Oracle, a company with which I worked for many years, it’s very difficult and costly to provide such support.
For Red Hat, it’s just how we operate. I have a team of core Linux and JBoss engineers here in the countries in which we operate to provide local language and local understanding support. We don’t outsource support. It’s the core of the value we provide to our customers. When a customer in Brazil needs help, they can feel comfort in knowing that Marcello Tosatti, a core Linux kernel developer, is just a phone call away.
Because we’re localized, we can provide support at rates and in a manner that works for Latin American budgets. We operate Red Hat South America as Red Hat South America, and not as a North American company pretending to care about local concerns.
