From the 'don't change the channel' files:

Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) is ramping up its sales efforts with a new partnership alongside SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), a business process services company.

The new partnership includes the launch of something called the Open Source Channel Alliance which is supposed to help make it easier for VARs to distribute and support open source software. The new alliance is starting off with nine founding members on top of Red Hat and SYNNEX. The members are: Alfresco, EnterpriseDB, Ingres, Jaspersoft, Likewise, Pentaho, Zmanda, Zenoss and Zimbra.

What Red Hat has done with this new Alliance is create its own open source channel with SYNNEX which is a big play in my view that could further push Red Hat Linux into the mainstream of IT. Red Hat has tried its own channel type effort in the past, notably the Red Hat Exchange (RHX). The SYNNEX deal is a little different because Red Hat is leaning on them and their distribution to help push open source further.

"This is a very exciting time for open source in the channel," Roger Egan, vice president of channel sales, North America, Red Hat said in a statement. "Our expanded partnership with SYNNEX allows us to create a scalable way to bring the power of open source solutions to a wider range of resellers. SYNNEX has a deep understanding of how to leverage the channel markets and there is a surge of demand for open source, so our partnership is well timed to meet market dynamics."