Back in 2007, Red Hat did in fact first attempt to become a reseller for its partners’ technologies with the Red Hat Exchange (RHX) effort. RHX, however, was closed down by 2010 as a failed effort. Badani said there were some lessons learned from the RHX experience, but more importantly, the software world has changed dramatically since 2007.
“Ultimately, what we want to do is to make as frictionless as possible the interaction between application creators and service providers,” Badani said. “If we can do that successfully, then the platform becomes more valuable.”