In a sign that the company is–completely, 100 percent, no
questions asked–behind Linux as an enterprise-ready technology,
IBM said Wednesday it has moved some of its key applications to the
open source operating system.
The changes impact some of core functions at the Armonk,
N.Y.-based company including the application that monitors server
performance for its worldwide Lotus Notes e-mail system. That’s the
one that supports some 300,000 IBM employees around the globe.
The company said it is also using Linux for its manufacturing
equipment control for a $2.5 billion next generation 300mm
semiconductor technology manufacturing line in East Fishkill, N.Y.,
anti-virus protection for over 1 Terabyte of e-mail every month,
and community collaboration forums for IBM’s internal Web portal
with over 17 million hits per day.
“IBM is building its business on Linux. It is not a coincidence
that Linux is playing a part in virtually every aspect of IBM’s
infrastructure at the same time that our customers are adopting
Linux at unprecedented rates,” said IBM vice president of Business
Transformation and CIO Phil Thompson. “Linux makes good business
sense for our customers because of its low cost, extreme stability
and flexibility. It makes good business sense for IBM for those
same reasons.”
The shift is a part of IBM’s Global Services initiative. Big
Blue estimates putting Linux on IBM eServer systems will help the
company save more than $10 million per year within its worldwide
infrastructure with four times the throughput as its previous
system.
“Moving the Lotus Notes Management system from Windows NT to
Linux has allowed IBM to use 75 percent fewer monitoring servers
for the same workload and to reuse previously deployed IBM eServer
xSeries servers,” said Thompson.
The proof that Linux is even ready for prime time, according to
IBM lies is in the number of major corporations that are coming to
the open source table.
“This is the fourth time IBM has had a keynote at LinuxWorld and
I can tell you when we started, that we were pretty much alone on
stage,” said Doug Elix, Senior VP and Group Executive, IBM Global
Services. “Today we have to share the stage with tree huggers and
self-proclaimed Linux supporters.”
During Wednesday’s keynote, Elix said IBM naturally farms a
Linux culture because it is cost effective, it attracts the next
generation of programmers and it has the potential to be the
operating system of choice for the next generation, not only for
servers and the desktop, but for Grid Computing as well.
“Trust me, If management doesn’t get it, the staff will,” Elix
said.
For example, using IBM systems, the University of Pennsylvania’s
Grid and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are working on a
national digital mammography archive. And earlier this year, game
player Grid Butterfly.net said it has switched to IBM-based
Linux-based servers to run its complex infrastructure.
Elix said his hope for the Linux community going forward is to
embrace open standards and open markets; make it so the IT staff
spends more on the enterprise; manage more complexity and build
resiliency; and treat Internet technology the same as other
commodities like water, gas and electricity.
Fortunately, Elix said IBM is holding an olive branch to other
players he says may be stuck in their proprietary ways.