• The leading provider of Open Source solutions will help raise awareness around FIWARE technologies, support adoption on a global basis and back the broader FIWARE Community;
• Red Hat’s membership lends further support to FIWARE as an Open Source standards driver;
• In collaboration with FIWARE, Red Hat intends to contribute towards building the foundation for a Digital Single Market for smart solutions;
• FIWARE brings a vision in which AI, Big Data, IoT, blockchain, edge computing and robotics technologies can be combined to support the development of smart solutions in a faster, easier and affordable way, and Red Hat will help enrich and further develop this vision.

Berlin, May 20, 2020 — FIWARE Foundation, the non-profit organization that encourages the adoption of open standards — implemented using Open Source technologies — for the development of smart solutions on a global basis, announces today its newest Platinum Member, Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of enterprise Open Source solutions. FIWARE Foundation’s 325+ international members are collaborating towards the creation of key standards for the development of smart solutions, whilst also speeding up their own innovative projects, based on Open Source. Red Hat’s commitment to the development of Open Source technologies, communities and business models is an added value to the FIWARE Community.

FIWARE member organizations will focus on supporting open governance and continued contribution within the FIWARE Community, driving the development of a sustainable ecosystem around Open Source, standards-based, innovation-driven technologies for the development of smart solutions in multiple sectors and on a global scale. For decades, Red Hat has been harnessing the Open Source development model’s ability to deliver enterprise-ready innovation at faster, more flexible and more cost-efficient rates. The company’s forward-thinking business model has brought collaborative technologies such as Linux, Kubernetes and more, into the forefront of innovation. With sound Open Source cultures, FIWARE and Red Hat intend to collaborate to help establish Open Source as the default choice for smart solutions across enterprises — large companies and SMEs — the public sector and the research field.

FIWARE’s unwavering approach to international, open standards, based on Open Source

Common standards for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and data models are at the heart of platforms and digital infrastructures, enabling the interoperability and portability of solutions. In order to successfully make it into the market today, new smart services and solutions must be able to securely communicate with other services and devices, traversing a multitude of infrastructures and systems. This way, solution providers benefit from knowing that their solutions can be connected with other applications or pieces of software — already developed and widely available — or that they can replicate them for multiple customers with rather low adaptation costs.

By taking an implementation-driven Open Source approach, FIWARE has been accelerating the maturity and adoption of key standards for smart solutions. Together with its members, FIWARE has already spearheaded several standardization activities with ETSI (NGSI-LD API specifications), W3C (Web of Things), GSMA (IoT Big Data Ecosystem project), TM Forum, to name but a few, but there is surely room for further work and Red Hat’s expertise is an asset.

“Having Red Hat on board means a great deal to our Community. Already positioned as the leading enterprise Open Source solutions provider, Red Hat will help further power the drive to implement FIWARE standards and accelerate Open Source compliance activities. Furthermore, as FIWARE is already becoming the Open Source platform of choice in many domains on which future smart solutions will be built upon, the combined work with Red Hat is essential to fuel this evolution of Open Source as the cornerstone of the digital revolution. Not only does it allow us to co create with one another, but most importantly, it enables our joint users to develop more sophisticated and interoperable solutions”, said Ulrich Ahle – FIWARE Foundation CEO.

FIWARE and Red Hat collaboration: welcoming news for organizations worldwide

Open Source is Red Hat’s DNA. For over 25 years, the organization has been following the principles of Open Source development methodology and the innovation that happens in communities. These are the very same principles which FIWARE Foundation is based upon. As disruptive technologies such as AI, Big Data, IoT, blockchain, edge computing, robotics, to name but a few, have become the backbone for innovation and are already reshaping long-established ways of conducting businesses, FIWARE has been successfully combining such technologies to transform enterprise operations, industrial and farming processes, and consumer services across many domains. Red Hat will further enrich this vision.

“We immensely value our customers, partners and the Open Source ecosystem and look forward to collaboration with FIWARE. We believe that together with FIWARE, we can further help organizations to be successful in the implementation of open IoT, Smart Cities and edge computing solutions.” — Shashin Shinde — chief technology strategist, Red Hat.

As the digital revolution has dramatically changed the way organizations conduct businesses, having standard APIs — so that applications can easily communicate with other programs and devices — is crucial. The core component of any “Powered by FIWARE” platform is the Context Broker, selected by all the European member states as the new Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Building Block in 2018. This component supports the FIWARE NGSI API, a simple yet powerful API that solves an essential function in any smart solution: how to gather, manage and provide access to context information. The FIWARE NGSI API enables the integration of FIWARE platform components, the interoperability of smart solutions or services running on top of “Powered by FIWARE” platforms as well as their portability across different “Powered by FIWARE” platforms.

Furthermore, FIWARE brings additional Open Source components which platform providers can choose from and integrate together — including integration with third-party components — to build their platforms. Therefore, Red Hat technologies can be incorporated into this formula to extend the power and scale of the open smart technology stack. For instance, platform providers can integrate Red Hat 3scale API Management technology into a given product. On the other hand, platform providers who had previously built their platform offering based on Red Hat technologies may take advantage of leading technologies that FIWARE brings for real-time open data sharing or data monetisation.

In short, the collaboration between FIWARE and Red Hat technologies is intended to help accelerate open innovation at large, allowing a broader range of organisations to benefit from it.

“When there is Open Source code available and open data, democratical development through digitization and shared knowledge will and can happen. We all must be more open to all. To knowledge, to thoughts, to ideas, to share and ask questions like: What do you share? How do you participate in the global knowledge?” — Kim Lantto — Development leader of digital services, Gothenburg city, which joined the Front-runner Smart Cities Program in 2018.

A joint initiative between FIWARE Foundation and industry association TM Forum, the program aims to develop tools to support a digital marketplace of interoperable and replicable solutions for smart cities, thereby helping cities to move towards a ‘city as a platform’ vision and support an economy of data. Via the Front-runner Smart Cities program, participating cities adopt a standard reference architecture for their data platforms and collaborate on common data models so that developers can create services and products that interoperate and can be rolled out in multiple cities without a high level of custom development work.

Adding further expertise and experience to FIWARE Foundation Board of Directors

Moreover, the incorporation of Red Hat in FIWARE’s governance bodies is expected to positively impact the way FIWARE will further evolve and help organizations gear up for the digital tomorrow. Shashin Shinde, Red Hat EMEA’s chief technologist strategist, joins FIWARE Foundation Board of Directors, actively contributing to the FIWARE strategic roadmap and growth strategy. Other Platinum members include renowned industry players Atos, Engineering, NEC, Telefónica and Trigyn technologies.

About FIWARE Foundation

Founded in 2016 by Atos, Engineering, Orange and Telefónica, FIWARE Foundation, together with its members and partners, drives the definition — and the Open Source implementation — of key open de-facto standards that enable the development of portable and interoperable smart solutions in a faster, easier and affordable way avoiding vendor lock-in scenarios, whilst also nourishing FIWARE as a sustainable and innovation-driven business ecosystem. The foundation does that with the support of a fast-growing global Community that shares a common vision and combines their efforts toward making FIWARE the Open Source technology of choice for industries, governments, universities and associations to reach their full potential and scale up their activities, thereby, entering new markets and growing their businesses. For further information, visit fiware.org and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube.

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Press Contact for FIWARE Foundation
Val De Oliveira – valdirene.deoliveira@fiware.org