Linux: new options for SMBs (page 2 of 2)

IBM Global Services provide the broad array of consulting, enabling and support services specifically targeted for Linux customers.

IBM has made and continues to make investments in Linux. For example, IBM's Linux Technology Center provides more than 250 engineers worldwide who work full time on Linux as a part of the open source community.

More than 7,500 IBM employees work on Linux in porting centers: research, services, development labs, and in the areas of sales and marketing. IBM operates 3,000 Linux servers internally, running mission critical applications.

For example, the IBM Linux Website, the internal e-Workplace development website, IBM forums, the internal web search engine, and internal Web servers for over 300,000 employees worldwide.

Are there some specific Linux customers that you can talk about?

Yes, there sure are. In the area of Linux Virtual Services, Mobile Travel Guide wanted to launch an auto travel Web site driven by customer preferences and offering real-time services, and they wanted to do it in a very short period of time -- nine months.

They implemented a Linux-based infrastructure and IBM WebSphere solution which was delivered as On Demand Linux Virtual Services from IBM e-business hosting. The benefit to Mobile Travel Guide has been exceptional scalability, flexibility and support with limited up-front capital investment, and they made their nine month deadline.

Another customer that comes to mind is Winnebago Industries. They needed an e-mail upgrade because of problems they were experiencing with calendaring and the corruption of attachments within their existing system.

They were able to leverage Bynari and Linux under VM on a zSeries server to provide cost effective e-mail and calendaring -- the same server that runs their existing zSeries VSE business applications. This solution cost significantly less than the estimate to upgrade their existing system, and had minimal impact on their end users.

What do you see in the coming months for the SMB sector?

I see more zSeries mainframe business applications and solutions like PeopleSoft using Linux. More SMB type Linux applications, enabling larger databases, for example.

And now, Lotus Domino Web Access for basic e-mail, calendaring and instant messaging; and Lotus Workplace for high-value, component-based collaboration will soon becoming available on Linux, enabling SMB to deploy a pure Linux solution, wall-to-wall, using Mozilla web browsers on Linux.

These Lotus Linux products have been much anticipated, and we expect great things from them. The opportunity for SMBs to harness the security, stability and value of Linux has never been greater.