“It is significant that customers of every size and from every industry are turning to IBM, our Business Partners, and Linux for a variety of mission critical applications and total Linux solutions,” said Steve Solazzo, general manager, Linux at IBM. “The overwhelming trend toward Linux throughout the business world validates IBM’s decision over two years ago to embrace Linux and is further evidence of Linux’s compelling value proposition.”
Customers announced today who have chosen IBM Linux solutions include:
Air New Zealand, widely regarded as an airline industry leader for its outstanding customer service in the Asia Pacific region, is the latest to join the Linux fold. Air New Zealand has signed a major strategic outsourcing agreement with IBM Global Services. As part of the agreement, Air New Zealand will replace some 150 Compaq servers with a single mainframe — IBM’s flagship eServer zSeries — running Linux , IBM Websphere® Application Server, DB2 Database, and Tivoli software.
The switch to Linux on the mainframe will allow Air New Zealand to replace 4,000 Microsoft® Exchange email and file and print clients with Bynari, the open source email application.
Deutsche Telekom is the latest Linux customer in the telecommunications industry that has moved to Linux and IBM. T-Com, a unit of Deutsche Telekom responsible for Internet platforms, has improved their IT infrastructure by consolidating UNIX service applications previously running on 25 SUN servers onto an IBM eServer zSeries mainframe running Linux. T-Com has transferred applications previously running mail, Intranet web sites and mail back-up services for internal and external customers of Deutsche Telekom.
In the retail industry, the following IBM customers have made the move to Linux:
7-Eleven, a worldwide leader in convenience retailing, is turning to IBM and Linux to protect its internal e-mail infrastructure. 7-Eleven is running the Trustix Mail Server with AntiVirus scanning on an IBM eServer xSeries environment running Linux to scan e-mail for viruses before distributing it internally to all 7-eleven staff and employees throughout the 7-Eleven computer network.
Wolfermans, a gourmet baked goods company, has chosen IBM’s Integrated Platform for Linux to help power its booming Internet business, which has quadrupled in size over the past four years. To handle the more than 1 million online shoppers per day that are expected during the holiday season, Wolfermans, with the help of IBM Business Partner eOne Group, is using the IBM Linux cluster, which includes eServer x330 systems, WebSphere software and DB2® database software, to power its online e-commerce site.
With the new Linux cluster from IBM, Wolfermans has seen improved Web site performance that can easily scale to handle the demands of hundreds of thousands of online shoppers.
Westport River Winery moved from Microsoft to Linux to escape the burden of growing licensing fees and problems with performance. As a small family owned business, cost and reliability are essential when consolidating information for customer analysis. Westport Rivers installed ACCPAC Advantage Series with DB2 database software as well as Lotus® Domino running on Linux and they expect to save the 2 to 3 hours per week typically spent troubleshooting issues with the proprietary system. Now the small business can dedicate more time to their customers, who recognize the small winery as one of the top five sparkling wine producers in the country.
Satellite Records, the largest retailer of dance music in North America, is currently implementing a DB2 for Linux solution to integrate front and back-end systems with its Web site. The company is building a richer online shopping experience for customers, including real-time inventory information and the ability to check order status. Satellite, which sells more than 10,000 vinyl records each week from its Atlanta, Boston and New York stores, plans to build an extranet for its international distributors and will convert remaining IT systems, such as point-of-sale, over to the DB2 for Linux platform by the end of the year.
In the government sector, the following customers are the latest examples IBM customers around the world using Linux:
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), managed by the California Institute of Technology, is NASA’s lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system. JPL, with the help of IBM Global Services, is using a preassembled Linux cluster solution, consisting of 66 IBM eServer xSeries systems to perform analysis of mission data transmitted by the MLS probe on the Aura Spacecraft. The new IBM solution provides JPL with a one stop shopping experience for a preassembled Linux cluster, fully supported by IBM for hardware, software and services, allowing JPL to spend more time on the science of the project and less time on the technology to support the science, lowering the total cost of ownership.
Centrelink, the Australian Government’s premier service delivery agency, has signed a four year partnership agreement with IBM to provide mainframe capacity and associated software and services. Under Centrelink’s strategic sourcing framework, IBM will provide information technology infrastructure and services, as well as assistance to establish and support a world class Linux Laboratory to reduce costs and raise flexibility of the agency’s IT systems.
Mississippi State University has installed an 1,038 processor IBM Linux cluster made up of eServer x330 systems at their Engineering Research Center. The university research performed on the new supercomputer helps the Navy analyze ship designs to create quieter and more efficient submarines through computational fluid dynamics. The cluster — dubbed by the university as “EMPIRE” — also provides the massive compute power needed for remote sensing, computational physics, and automotive research.
The university has also performed detailed physics simulations for NASA of the vortex ring with tiltrotor aircraft flight and maneuvering. The work done on the IBM Linux cluster contributes to the aircraft safety including subjecting the rotating blades to microburst wind gusts and winter icing conditions.
Triaton, a multinational e-business consulting firm, has standardized on IBM software and hardware to provide Web-based business intelligence solutions for medium-sized customers. Triaton’s BISP (Business Intelligence Service Providing) solutions, powered by IBM’s DB2 database software for Linux running on a four-node IBM eServer xSeries cluster, seamlessly accesses, integrates and manages data from a wide variety of customer back-end systems including ERP, CRM, e-procurement, XML sources, relational databases and legacy systems. Customer data is transferred via the Internet into a DB2 datawarehouse that scales to 2.2 terabytes, providing the foundation for data mining and analysis. Since deploying DB2 for Linux, Triaton has enabled its customers to reduce IT costs by up to 30 percent and generate a full return on investment in less than nine months.
About IBM
IBM is the world’s leading server company and information technology provider, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM helps customers, Business Partners and developers in a wide range of industries that leverage the power of the Internet for e-business. For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com.
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IBM, eServer, DB2, Websphere, xSeries, and zSeries are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and other countries. Lotus and Domino are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linux Torvalds.
Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
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