InfoWorld: Linux presses forward

“DAMIAN IVEREIGH has been running Cisco’s printing system
worldwide using Linux for about four years. He runs all of Cisco’s
print operations from Sydney, Australia, and started using Linux
because he had used it at home and decided it was a good bet for
the company. Among other things, Linux was “screaming cheap” —
about $1,000 per low-volume server to install — and at that time,
Cisco was growing so fast that Ivereigh’s boss couldn’t
micro-manage his decision to go the open-source route.”

“Now, the setting for this familiar tale — a common plight for
IT managers everywhere — has changed. Recent surveys and market
activity point to the fact that for many companies, upper
management’s resistance to Linux appears to be eroding. The
story of how Ivereigh integrated the open-source system into his
company sheds light on how Linux is shedding its cult status and
going mainstream.“

“Today, the Linux system Ivereigh installed runs 3,000 printers
worldwide, and about 150 print servers — all managed remotely by
five people. This system handles an average of 120,000 print jobs a
day, including everything from accounting’s sales reports to orders
at the manufacturing level to faxing, which also links into the
system.”

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