The centre will be run in collaboration with IBM and VDEL, an IT Services company, providing support, development and educational services throughout South Eastern Europe.
The centre’s roots go back to February 2006, when IBM, Red Hat and VDEL jointly opened the Linux Innovation and Education Centre in the Faculty of Organisational Science in the University of Belgrade. This initial project provided the education, training and certification on technologies that provided the necessary skills for the opening of the RCSRD.
IBM will provide RCSRD with access to its technologies and knowledge base, enabling the RCSRD to eventually offer support for IBM open-source solutions. This will be the result of the next incubation project which the Faculty of Organisational Science is due to start in March 2007. This third project will create additional support services for RCSRD.
The RCSRD is also backed by the city of Vrsac, which has provided the necessary infrastructure and facilities. The decision to select Vrsac was based on the city’s competitive advantages which include: geographical location, multiethnic and multicultural environment, existing infrastructure, qualified resources, and the growth potential of the Serbian market and the surrounding region.