Italian Bank Deploys Red Hat Enterprise Linux across Desktops and Servers

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

“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.”

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, [e-mail]

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

Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for the Company, including statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: the factors discussed in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC (a copy of which may be accessed through the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov), reliance upon strategic relationships, management of growth, the possibility of undetected software errors, the risks of economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures and the viability of the Internet. 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 is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.