By John Leyden, VNU Net
Fujitsu Siemens has boosted its technical support and consulting
services for customers using Linux, through a deal with services
company Linuxcare.
The companies will collaborate on consulting for open-source
projects, and provide multilingual technical support for customers
and partners in many countries.
As part of the alliance, the pair will offer driver development
and application porting services for Fujitsu Siemens Computers
servers and workstations. Linuxcare will also provide project
support for Fujitsu Siemens’ customers and partners for
optimisation of Linux on Intel’s forthcoming 64bit microprocessor
platform, Itanium.
Joseph Reger, vice president of strategic marketing at Fujitsu
Siemens, said: “Our customers will benefit from Linuxcare’s
extensive knowledge and experience, and their ability to support
projects regardless of which Linux distribution they are
using.”
Barry Cochrane, Linuxcare’s UK country manger, said that the
alliance with Fujitsu Siemens goes further than its support
contracts with other manufacturers, such as IBM, because it
involves Linuxcare working directly with the vendor’s partners and
customers.
“IT directors in large companies need somewhere to go for
pro-active support if Linux is to take off. We will provide a full
service-level agreement that will cover things such as support
times,” said Cochrane, who added that the company would also
provide risk analysis for vendors deciding whether or not they can
trust putting mission-critical applications on Linux.
Chris Martin, an analyst at Xephon, said Linux support has been
a concern but user confidence is now growing, particularly because
of the investment and resources IBM has put into developing the
operating system.
This is a sign that another big player in the server market
is putting its weight behind Linux. With hardware vendor support
will come more applications and then the whole thing will
snowball,” said Martin.