LinuxPlanet: $1 Billion Well Spent?

“After you’ve taken the largest computer company in the world
and nimbly embraced one of the most important new phenomena in the
industry, spending a tidy $1 billion in the process, what do you do
for Act 2? That’s the question facing Jim Stallings as he takes
over the reins of IBM’s Linux initiative. Though Stallings’ Linux
group is a relatively small part of IBM’s Server division, the work
he does affects thousands of employees all across Big Blue’s many
lines of business and his work will have a major impact on the
future of Linux…

“LinuxPlanet: Now that you’ve had almost four
months to work on Linux, what has surprised you?

“Stallings: There are a couple of things that
have stunned me. It’s beyond surprise. It’s shock. Particularly at
the high end. These customers all have a Linux strategy envisioned
for their company. They’re way beyond the early adopter stage.
They’re very sophisticated about it. They understand those cost
savings. They understand the efficiency. They’ve got return on
investment models. They’re beyond pilot stage. They’re into what I
would call the mass production stage. They’re moving production
workloads. They’re working closely with their application vendors
as well as their own application departments to move a lot of
strategic applications over to Linux platforms…”

Complete
Story