Red Hat just released financial results for its fiscal 2008, which ended on February 29. For the first time, the company exceeded $500 million in revenue, and CEO Jim Whitehurst says Red Hat is now focused on its new goal: being the first open source vendor to reach revenue of $1 billion.

internetnews.com reports:

Revenues at the Linux vendor hit $523 million for its fiscal year 2008 which is a 31 percent increase over its total 2007 revenue tally. The 2007 total revenue figure of $400.6 million itself was a 44 percent improvement over Red Hat's fiscal 2006 year end revenue figures.

Much of the growth is a result of Red Hat's new JBoss division, which reportedly grew at twice the rate of the company's flagship operating system platform. In the new year, Whitehurst says, the company is looking to better efficiency. To that end, Red Hat will "invest in its own infrastructure," the story says.