Italian Bank Deploys Red Hat Enterprise Linux across Desktops and Serv

    Business Editors/High-Tech Editors

    MILAN, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2005--

BPU Banca Migrates from Sun Solaris to Red Hat Enterprise Linux to
    Reduce Workstation Cost by 50% and Avoid Vendor Lock-in

    Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ:RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source to the enterprise, today announced that BPU Banca, the operational parent bank of the group Banche Popolari Unite, Italy's seventh largest banking group and first co-operative credit banking group, has chosen to implement Red Hat Enterprise Linux across its desktops and servers.
    The bank is migrating all of its 8,000 UNIX workstation clients to Red Hat Desktop. In this project BPU Banca will replace Sun hardware with Intel-based PCs to achieve combined hardware and software cost savings of about 50%.
    The migration of its systems from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux also delivers vendor independence for both hardware and software, assuring BPU Banca greater flexibility when implementing infrastructure solutions that comply with new industry trends and best practices. Finally, the migration will enable the use of PCs in dual-boot mode to support Linux and Microsoft Windows without additional cost.
    "This project is one of the most important migrations to Linux in the Italian financial sector," says Roberto Semplici, Account Executive Red Hat Italy. "BPU Banca is a clear proof-point of the advantages guaranteed by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux product family, opening the path to future Linux implementations in this market sector."
    Using Red Hat Network for the maintenance, asset management and security management of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems will allow BPU Banca to easily manage groups of servers and workstations from virtually anywhere via a Web interface. BPU Banca will conclude its migration from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux by the end of this year.
    Future plans include widening its migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux to encompass the group's entire server infrastructure.
    For more information on Red Hat please visit http://www.redhat.com.

    About BPU Banca

    BPU Group, the 7th largest banking group in Italy, and first co-operative credit banking group, originated from the merger of Banca Popolare di Bergamo-CV and Banca Popolare Commercio e Industria in July 2003. The Group has a poly-functional and multi-polar structure. The individual banks (Banca Popolare di Bergamo, Banca Popolare Commercio e Industria, Banca Carime, Banca Popolare di Ancona and Banca Popolare di Todi), while preserving local identities, maintain a strong hold of their respective territories and at the same time distribute banking, financial, insurance and leasing products and services of the parent bank and Group product companies.

    About Red Hat, Inc.andi.lustak@axicom.com

    Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's Open Source strategy offers customers a long term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com

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CONTACT: Red Hat, Inc. Leigh Day, 919-754-3700 Ext. 44369 lday@redhat.com or For Red Hat: AxiCom Andi Lustak, +44 20 8392 4058 andi.lustak@axicom.com

KEYWORD: NORTH CAROLINA ITALY INTERNATIONAL EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE SOFTWARE NETWORKING INTERNET E-COMMERCE PRODUCT SOURCE: Red Hat, Inc.

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