Red Hat Ranked #1 Most Valuable Software Vendor by CIO Insight Study for 4th Consecutive...

Red Hat Ranked #1 Most Valuable Software Vendor by CIO Insight Study for 4th Consecutive Year

Company Ranked 1st Vendor Overall for Three of Last Four Years,
Receives Customer Loyalty Score Of 97% From Polled CIOs and Senior IT
Executives
RALEIGH, N.C.--(Business Wire)--Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source
solutions, today announced that it has been named the leader in vendor
value and satisfaction by Ziff Davis' 2007 "CIO Insight Vendor Value"
study, which polls IT executives on the value and reliability
delivered by vendors. This marks the third time in four years that the
company has been ranked first of all global vendors evaluated in the
study, and the fourth consecutive year Red Hat has been named the most
valuable software vendor.

The "CIO Insight Vendor Value" study, now in its fifth year,
polled 472 respondents, more than half of whom considered themselves
the top IT executives at their company. Each were asked to rate their
IT vendors on eight key criteria concerning value, reliability and
loyalty. Criteria included expectations of vendors for increasing
revenues, lowering business or IT costs, solving business problems,
meeting ROI, meeting time and budget commitments, flexibility and
responsiveness to needs, quality expectations and customer loyalty.

This year, in addition to ranking first overall, Red Hat achieved
first-place rankings for:

-- criteria for meeting expectations for lowering costs

-- meeting commitments on time and budget

-- customer satisfaction, with 97 percent of polled customers who
said they would continue to conduct business with Red Hat in
the future.

Red Hat ranked in the top five of all vendors in seven out of
eight categories, including additional rankings for:

-- expectations for quality

-- increasing revenue

-- ROI expectations

-- flexibility and responsiveness to needs.(1)

"Our global customers face the daily dilemma of doing more with
less, needing to deliver innovative solutions in a short amount of
time and with a small and often shrinking budget," said Michael Chen,
vice president, Corporate Marketing at Red Hat. "With the benefits of
open source solutions, IT decision-makers are able to change the way
they develop, deploy and use software. The value delivered by Red Hat,
and open source as a whole, is reinforced through the consistent high
rankings in research studies, such as the 'CIO Insight Vendor Value'
study. We're thrilled to be the leading Enterprise Software vendor for
the fourth consistent year."

In 2004, Red Hat received the highest-ever score for value(2) when
the CIO Insight Magazine survey interviewed over 1,000 U.S.-based IT
executives. In 2005, Red Hat was again named the leader in vendor
value(3) and overall satisfaction and ranked first for value and
meeting expectations for increasing revenues. In 2006, the Company was
ranked third overall and the number one most valuable software vendor
in the same CIO study.(4) Similarly, in August 2007, Red Hat's
operations in Japan were named the number one IT vendor to do business
with by customers in the region in Nikkei Market Access' "Industry
Trends in Intended Use of Products/Services of Major Vendors"
study.(5)

For more information on Red Hat's CIO Insight accolades, or to
view the entire 2007 CIO Insight study, visit
www.redhat.com/promo/vendor. For more news, more often, visit
www.press.redhat.com.

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source solutions provider, is
headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 50 satellite offices spanning
the globe. CIOs have ranked Red Hat first for value in Enterprise
Software for four consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor
Value study. Red Hat provides high-quality, low-cost technology with
its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with
applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA)
solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat
also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers
worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements
provide current expectations of future events based on certain
assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to
any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially
from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of
various important factors, including: risks related to the integration
of acquisitions; the ability of the Company to effectively compete;
the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and
the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or
relating to third party intellectual property; risks related to data
and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of,
and control over, the Company's growth and international operations;
adverse results in litigation; the dependence on key personnel as well
as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form
10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and
Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those
found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations". In addition, the forward-looking statements included in
this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of
this press release and these views could change. However, while the
Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some
point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation
to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon
as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the
date of the press release.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT and JBOSS are
registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the US
and other countries.

(1) The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value, November 2007

(2) The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value, December 2004

(3) The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value, December 2005

(4) The CIO Insight Research Study: Vendor Value, December 2006

(5) Industry Trends in Intended Use of Products/Services of Major
Vendors, August 2007

Red Hat
Kerri Catallozzi, 919-754-4268
kcatallo@redhat.com

Copyright Business Wire 2007