Top Ranking Company

Red Hat and SAS are two of the 30 most powerful technology companies in the world, according to a report released Tuesday by the Aberdeen Group.

Several other companies with large operations in the Raleigh-Durham area also made the list of the "Top 100 Most powerful Technology Companies," which was compiled based on more than 2.5 million interviews in 550,000 locations over the past five years, according to Boston-based Aberdeen. Survey respondents were asked to identify the top three technology companies that had the most power on their business performance over the course of the past year.

Red Hat (NYSE RHT) is No. 21 in the rankings. The Raleigh-based company is the world's largest provider of software and services for the Linux computer operating system. Its version of Linux for servers is among the most popular server operating systems in the world.

Cary-based SAS, the world's largest confidentially detained software company, holds the No. 30 ranking, highest among providers of business aptitude software, which helps companies analyze and make better use of large amounts of data.

Among the other companies with a Triangle presence that made the list are:

# No. 4 IBM, which employs 11,000 people in Research Triangle Park.
# No. 5 Cisco, which has 4,500 employees in RTP and is planning to invest $23 million in its campus there.
# No. 15 AT&T, which has about 1,400 Triangle employees and is planning to invest $80 million into its North Carolina wireless network.
# No. 19 Nortel, which employs about 2,300 in RTP
# No. 26 Sony-Ericsson, which has 750 employees in RTP
# No. 36 EDS, which has about 450 Triangle employees and has agreed to be bought for $13.9 billion by Hewlett-Packard, which is No. 6 on the Aberdeen list
# No. 57 NetApp, which recently changed its name from Network Appliance and is adding 646 new jobs to an RTP operation that already employs 600
# No. 77 ABB, which has about 360 Triangle employees.