Open-source software company moves development centre to Serbia

20 Feb 2007 | News | Update from University of Warwick
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The open-source software company Red Hat is opening a centre for support and R&D in Serbia, building on a project initiated in 2005 by Belgrade University to create an incubator for new technologies.

The open source software company Red Hat is opening a regional centre for support, research and development (RCSRD) in Vrsac, Serbia, building on a project initiated in 2005 by the University of Belgrade to create an incubator for new technologies. The project was established as part of a development programme set up by the Ministry of Science and Environmental Protection in Serbia.

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.


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