Red Hat has sealed a potentially lucrative marketing and technology deal that could see its open source and Linux software land in more government and defense locations.

The company is partnering with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), an $8.3bn systems and solutions provider that lists NATO and the Department of Homeland Security (DHC) among its roster of clients.

Red Hat and SAIC have agreed to partner on development of technology and marketing to promote Red Hat and open source code to defense, federal and commercial users.

SAIC expects to bring its experience in systems integration, software development, database architecture and management of large projects to Red Hat Linux and middleware deployments. Red Hat said it expects the deal will help speed-up the move to open source by the US military, intelligence community, homeland security and other federal agencies. ®