Kudos, Red Hat: You beat financial estimates for your current quarter. Wall Street was impressed. And customers are falling all over each other to sign long-term business deals with you. Still, The VAR Guy was disappointed will one key data point you shared this week.

Specifically, only 52 percent of your most recent quarterly revenue came from channel partners. Does that mean the glass is half-full — or half-empty — with Red Hat’s channel program?

Sure, Red Hat had a strong quarter, and the company has made progress with its partner program in recent years. The addition of JBoss helps VARs make $10 in consulting fees for every dollar worth of Red Hat middleware they sell. And Red Hat hopes to derive 60 percent of its revenue through partners in the not-too-distant future.

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