First Distribution, South Africa's leading distributor for datacentre, enterprise and cloud solutions, has announced that it has acquired Linux Warehouse, which will become its open source division.

The acquisition comes as response by the distributor to the increased demand of enterprise open source software adoption by industry, and extends First Distribution's ability to service its network of resellers with open source business solutions.

As First Distribution's subsidiary, Linux Warehouse will grow its staff compliment into a broader team of experts, adding value via an expansion of brand, sales and marketing specialists.

Linux Warehouse's current portfolio includes Red Hat (open source technologies for the enterprise), SUSE (software infrastructure solutions optimised for computing environments and industries), Zimbra (email collaboration and web client) and MongoDB (a leading big data database).

First Distribution Managing Director, Debbie Abrahall stated that "We have extended our product stack to be able to answer the call for an alternative to proprietary solutions. Enterprise open source software responds to the enterprise by providing optimised and innovative software subscriptions, free from vendor-lock in. Companies are thus able to innovate further whilst faced with budget restrictions."

Linux Warehouse will continue its existing relationships, operations and processes with its resellers, and remains committed to providing its partners with its usual high levels of customer service.

Linux Warehouse Managing Director, Shannon Moodley said "We encourage our existing resellers to engage with us as usual, and we look forward to succeeding together as we have in the past. Under First Distribution, we believe that success lies ahead in the future, as the market continues to increase its rate of adoption of enterprise open source technologies."