COLT Telecommunications France Chooses Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Run Company Servers; Deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Delivers Increased Reliability and Security for Customers.

PARIS -- Red Hat, Inc. (NASDAQ: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source to the enterprise, today announced that COLT Telecommunications France has installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux on 400 of its servers in response to demand from customers for increased reliability and security across different services.

COLT offers customers a complete IT platform care package. Customers can also take advantage of the company's own private infrastructure should they need to outsource any aspect of their IT systems. In addition, COLT also provides a comprehensive disaster recovery service as a preventative measure against irreparable systems failure.

COLT selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux in order to deliver key applications for hosting customers."We wanted a reliable, enterprise-class Linux distribution, both for software producers and for use with applications. Support for Oracle was also a requirement. Another essential aspect was the possibility of being able to carry out updates and patch applications on a regular basis, in accordance with our very strict policy on security. Red Hat Satellite Server offers us enormous flexibility and allows us to save a considerable amount of time", explained Gilles Marec, Unix Administrator, Data Centre Solutions Department.

COLT is using Red Hat Network Satellite Server to manage and grow their deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers. "Every month we implement between 15 and 20 servers installed with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. To date, 400 of our servers have been configured with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, We expect to set up a further 300 Linux servers before the end of this year, half of which will be for new clients", added Jean-Philippe Sohier, Activity Manager at Data Centre Solutions.

"The quality of service provision and guarantees on security have won COLT the confidence of several large French companies. For COLT, data centre activity is vital. The confidence they have in Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Network is a recognition of the quality of our services and provisions, as well as the performance and high availability afforded by an open source architecture Linux", stated Werner Knoblich, vice president of EMEA at Red Hat.

For more information please visit http://www.europe.redhat.com.

About COLT

COLT is one of the leading European providers of business communications. COLT specialises in providing data, voice and managed services to midsize and major businesses and wholesale customers. It has more than 50,000 customers across all industry sectors. COLT owns and operates a 13-country, 20,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 32 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 10,000 buildings and 12 COLT data centres.

COLT Telecom Group plc, COLT's parent company, is listed on the London Stock Exchange (CTM.L) and NASDAQ (COLT). Information about COLT and its services can be found at www.colt.net www.colt.net

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications, and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's Open Source strategy offers customers a long-term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.europe.redhat.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for the Company, including statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: the factors discussed in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC (a copy of which may be accessed through the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov), reliance upon strategic relationships, management of growth, the possibility of undetected software errors, the risks of economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures and the viability of the Internet. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.

LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.