Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor together with Minister of State for Training, Skills & Innovation John Halligan today announced that Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, plans to invest €12.7M in a new project, committing to create up to 60 jobs in Waterford over four years.

The project is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation through IDA Ireland.

Red Hat’s Waterford office was established in 2014 following its acquisition of the cloud-based mobile software company, FeedHenry, originally a spin-out from Waterford Institute of Technology, and currently serves as the company’s global hub for research and development into mobile application development technology. In addition to Waterford, Red Hat has two other offices in Ireland, including Cork and Dublin.

Red Hat is at the forefront of developing new open source technologies that support organisations’ digital transformation projects around the world. This project is an example of Red Hat’s investment in these technologies and the talent that makes them possible.

Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, Red Hat Inc. is the world’s leading open source software solutions provider. Established in 1993, Red Hat has more than 85 offices globally and employs more than 10,000 people. Red Hat’s R&D global headquarters is in Westford, Massachusetts.

As an open source software provider, Red Hat uses a community-driven approach to develop and supply software-based operating systems, virtualisation, middleware, storage and cloud technologies. The company is focused on developing leading-edge open source technologies in areas that include containers, messaging, big data, real-time computing, middleware, management, mobile, security and identity.

Making the announcement in Waterford today, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mary Mitchell O’Connor said: “This is terrific news for Waterford and the South East and I warmly welcome the creation of up to 60 high value R&D jobs which Red Hat has committed to create here over the next four years. This investment of €12.7m shows the confidence Red Hat has in its Waterford staff and also in its ability to source highly skilled workers. This is a great day for Waterford and the South East region.’’

The Minister of State for Training, Skills and Innovation, John Halligan TD said: “This is a really positive development for the South East region. The Government through the Action Plan for Jobs is very focussed on ensuring all of Ireland benefit from job creation. This project today shows that we have the capability to attract big IT projects, which will bring well paid jobs to the region.”

Dr. Mícheál Ó Foghlú, CTO, Red Hat Mobile, said: “The opening of this new office, and the announcement of the investment, is the result of significant work by all of the staff here in Waterford, most of whom are working on challenging new mobile technologies. We look forward to taking our place as a key pillar in the Information Technology landscape in the region.”

IDA Ireland CEO Martin Shanahan said: “It is great to see Red Hat develop its Waterford office as a strategic site by adding this project. Waterford has a growing software engineering base and this decision by Red Hat, a global software leader, to locate this project here is another excellent endorsement of the region as a prime location for other technology companies to invest in. I wish the company every success with this project.”