Gray said that Red Hat customers who run Oracle databases and/or applications and might be considered likely switchers to Oracle support, are not a huge percentage of its overall base.

"In all of the discussions I have with customers around their eco-systems, I don't see any bias towards Oracle," he said, pointing out that Red Hat has enough customers running the MySQL and PostGreSQL open-source databases that it began supporting them in September.

Gray said that despite the coming competition, Red Hat's support team continues to work closely with Oracle. "Our technical account manager has been having his weekly and daily calls with Oracle's engineering and support teams," he said.

But Gray asserted that customers switching to Oracle support will lose benefits such as direct contact with Red Hat's engineers and the ability to directly influence Red Hat's roadmap. "Support doesn't just start when a customer hits a bug, it runs throughout our relationship," he said.

Asked if Red Hat would try to get back at Oracle by offering discount support for Oracle's software, Gray laughed. "As the guy in charge of Red Hat support, I've got no plans," he said.