RALEIGH – Red Hat is going on a hiring spree to bolster its further development of cloud computing efforts.

The Raleigh-based firm that’s now part of IBM is adding “more than 500 new associates” accross North America with the new jobs coming primarily in Raleigh and Boston, a Red Hat spokesperson says.

The emphasis is on hybrid cloud – in which customers work with Red Hat to link together private and public (such as Amazon Web Services) cloud for data operations such as storage and development.

The additional Red Hat jobs is the latest in a series of hiring announcements by companies in the Triangle, including Apple, Fidelity Investments, Google and numerous life science firms.

IBM bought Red Hat for $34 billion two years ago, the major focus being cloud computing. Hybrid cloud is the hot space with Big Blue advertising its portfolio widely and on Tuesday announcing for tools such as deeper integration of Watson, its artificial intelligence technology.

IBM enters ‘digital century in full force’ with deeper embrace of cloud, AI, says CEO

“These roles will enhance research and development in new applications of existing technology, as well as support and expand work within our customer base,” the Red Hat spokesperson said of the new jobs. “The job roles will range from technical engineering to product marketing and content strategy with a focus on edge deployments with Red Hat and our partners.”

Red Hat already has other open jobs. This site has details.