“Red Hat has made no secret of the fact that it wants to get
more of its sales through indirect channels. This is not just a
matter of shifting the burden of sales to resellers, as is the case
with most server makers, but is also a means of keeping Red Hat’s
overall revenues growing so it attains its long-term goal of
becoming a $1bn, profitable software company.“Managing a channel is a bit like managing an open source
software development project, inasmuch as both are meritocracies
that reward the best performance. The difference is that big
channel partners who bring in the big sales want the best
commissions and other rewards, such as co-marketing funds,
training, and input into product plans as well as the normal
roadmap briefings.”