“Officially, the open-source OS is experimental in financial
services firms, but it’s starting to go into production.“
“Linux is there, but nobody will talk about it,” says a former
employee of Salomon Smith Barney Inc. and a large bank. At both
companies, he encountered hush-hush Linux tests and small-scale
initiatives. Even now, as an independent consultant trying to sell
his Linux- and Informix-based database services to those firms, he
still insists on anonymity when it comes to discussing Linux in
large financial services companies.”
“If you ask about the use of Linux at leading financial services
companies, the official answer is that it’s not present. IT has
defined the business systems standards, which typically include one
or more flavors of Unix and Windows. Linux hasn’t made the list and
isn’t even up for formal consideration by IT managers who are more
comfortable with more mature and time-proven technologies.”
“But unofficially, many financial services companies have set up
pilot projects, says Dan Powers, IBM’s director of early-stage
Internet technology. Some of those Linux efforts have progressed
beyond pilots and are actually deployed, often providing some
infrastructure service, such as a directory. Yet, even in these
cases, “the CIO often doesn’t know about it,” Powers says.”