Evolving our middleware strategy

Editor’s note: Earlier today, president and chief executive officer of Red Hat, Matt Hicks, shared the following email with Red Hatters.

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Hi all,

Today, we’re sharing that Red Hat and IBM will join forces to secure the future of the Java application ecosystem for our customers. The Red Hat middleware engineering and product teams will join the IBM Data Security, IAM, and Runtimes organization, forming a single team.* This move supports and grows our combined customer footprint, and builds a unified product strategy for the future of Java applications and Integration solutions in the era of cloud and AI.

Why now?

For nearly two decades, Red Hat has been the leading provider of open source middleware solutions, and an anchor of the Java application ecosystem. The 2006 acquisition of JBoss, and subsequent acquisitions in the middleware space, put Red Hat on a path to becoming the leading application platform provider we are today. We have built and nurtured open source projects and communities, and collaborated with countless individuals, foundations, and companies along the way.

However, today Java is at an inflection point. Customers are facing end of lifecycle and support uncertainty (such as the upcoming end of Java 8 community support and the challenging prospect of migrating countless applications to newer but substantially different versions of Java). Both Red Hat and IBM have decades of experience serving thousands of enterprise Java customers and helping them navigate and thrive through change. We have advocated for and represented customers through participation in the Java community process and leadership in critical open source projects. Securing the future of Java is a challenge best tackled together.

What’s changing?

The Product and Engineering teams that are shifting to IBM will create and deliver a unified middleware product strategy, serving both Red Hat and IBM customers. Red Hat will continue to sell and support the current portfolio of Runtimes and Integration products. IBM intends to use Red Hat technology and expertise to build new products and solutions.

With this approach, there will be no change for existing customers. Red Hat customers will continue to buy Red Hat middleware from Red Hat and its partners. Customers with existing subscriptions will be able to maintain and grow their footprints as needed, with no change in their Red Hat relationship.

All transitioning Red Hat technology will remain open source and continue to follow an upstream-first development model. The combined team will continue to be stewards of Java in the open source community, and drive innovation of cloud-native Java frameworks, such as Quarkus, for new application development.

We are uniquely positioned to provide a compelling direction for our customers and deliver a cohesive product strategy for the future of Java applications and integration solutions. In the face of uncertainty with Java, Java EE, and Spring, we can show up with a single answer and direction that benefits WebSphere and JBoss EAP customers alike.

The transfer of all roles to IBM is targeted for May 2025.*

Chris, Ashesh, and Andrew will follow up with more details for their respective teams.

- Matt

*The implementation of the changes is subject to the completion of local legal and labor processes in the countries.