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For Ambitious Managers of Linux and Mixed IT Environments
ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS...
3 SUSE Linux – the future
7 Data centre optimisation best practice…
2 An enterprise guide to Virtualization
6 The big case study - Flybe
4 Can Open-Source rise to the boardroom challenge
8 FREE Open-Source consultation...
How evolving business models are enabling Open-Source software adoption
LinuxIT to the rescue with new Indemnification Program
primary catalyst for the innovation of the cost effective Open-Source business models discussed later.
Cultivating a mixed IT environment and benefit from the ‘best of both worlds’
There is a very strong propaganda blogger focus among the Open-Source community that tends to treat Open-Source as an ideology. Some organisations even treat it as an ethical issue and that tends to muddy the waters.
UK’s leading Open-Source specialist launches a world first
Mark Driver, VP, Gartner
Open-Source represents some revolutionary concepts being thrown at an industry. It gives customers control over the technologies they use, instead of enabling the vendors to control their customers through restricting access to the code behind the technologies. However, supplying Open-Source tools to the market will require new business models.
Bob Young, Chairman and CEO, Red Hat
Since Young’s prediction over a decade ago, Open-Source software (OSS) has come of age. And with it a number of maturing business models now allow companies to capitalise on its much heralded benefits whilst mitigating the business risks inherent in the implementation of any new technology. WHAT OSS IS AND THE MOST WIDELY ACCLAIMED BENEFITS OSS makes available the source code which the licensee may inspect, use, improve, expand and distribute freely. The fact that OSS can be freely copied without payment of royalties is perhaps its greatest draw, at least at first glance. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and OSS is not ‘free’ in the sense that there are no costs associated with its adoption. Whilst it has the potential to significantly reduce total cost of ownership (TCO), it is a mistake to rest the case here. What OSS promises is ‘freedom’; freedom from vendor lock-in and the constraints of software which does not conform to OpenStandards. CIO’s are only too aware of
the potential exit costs of proprietary software and the effect that has on their agility in an increasingly volatile and changing market, but view them as long term considerations.
Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer. Richard Stallman, Free Software Foundation
What ultimately drives CIO’s to invest in OSS now are immediate cost savings and compliant software which deliver results in alignment with business strategy and goals. Economic conditions are forcing virtually all companies to re-examine costs and corporate management is applying more pressure on IT organisations to reduce expenses. In a recent CIO Insight survey of 219 IT executives, 80% of the respondents said they were under more pressure to reduce costs this year than they were last year and without any degradation of service or increased risk. This is where OSS has come into its own. The primary benefit of adopting OSS software is the ability to squeeze more productivity out of a lower IT budget.
Avoiding the adoption pitfalls Whilst most CIO’s considering OSS these days are either sufficiently well informed or guided by specialist consultancy firms so as to avoid the pitfalls, there are still those that embark on OSS policies and undertake return on investment (ROI) appraisals based on two popular misconceptions; it’s all or nothing, and it’s free. The design, transition, operation and ongoing development of OSS are not free and one way or another the CIO must factor those into the investment appraisal. Wherever these services come from, to deliver successful outcomes they must be undertaken in line with the organisations best practice policies. Only when they provide the proper processes, checks and testing demanded of proprietary software projects and is backed by enterprise SLA’s that offer at least as strong service delivery guarantees as their proprietary counterparts, can OSS be considered a viable alternative. Meeting these demands that retains the TCO advantage provided by free licensing is the challenge for OSS vendors and independent service providers and arguably acts as the
Today’s IT world is no longer an “all or nothing” world in which customers and vendors choose to be either proprietary or Open-Source. Instead, it is a progressive and pragmatic world where the OSS vs proprietary software dichotomy is replaced by one of healthy competition and cooperation making interoperable deployments a perfectly acceptable and often advisable solution. The key to success is determining which projects make sense for Open-Source. Savvy organisations consider both proprietary and Open-Source options and choose the right product for the given situation. ROI calculations must be undertaken using the proper time horizons and considering the risks/ rewards downstream. The software must stand on its own merits and be objectively measured in terms of quality, reliability, security, flexibility and cost in relation to the proprietary alternative.
ENTERPRISE READY OSS With over a quarter of a million OSS projects currently registered on SourceForge, one of the significant risks for any organisation considering OSS is identifying those that are enterprise ready. Determining which of them comes from an established, viable community, meets basic quality and integrity standards, is actively maintained and meets basic standards for documentation, and has a well-understood Open-Source licensing model is essential. Ascertaining the development roadmap and predicted longevity are similarly vital considerations in any product evaluation process and in Continued on page 3...
ISSUE 4
All over the world organisations have Open-Source policies in place, however even in the light of this positive discrimination there is still little evidence that Open-Source is being widely adopted - whilst the spend on proprietary, closed-source, software continues unabated. The major barrier professed by most organisations that wish to adopt Open-Source technologies, is that once you move past the ideological and cost benefits, that up to now there has been no guarantee that the software is fit for purpose, and that all of the risk of adoption and use is borne by the adopter. The benefits of Open-Source derived from its project development paradigm, as often the software is created by teams of unpaid people dedicating free time, can also create the biggest risk. Of course in a proprietary software model if your software doesn’t work as it should then you can go back to the publisher and hold them accountable to get it fixed. With the Open-Source option you can of course submit your bugs but there is no ‘commercial imperative’ to act upon them and that the community project will fix them, and certainly not in a specific time frame, or against any service level agreement.
So what about an Open-Source software Indemnification Program? LinuxIT’s unique Indemnification Program underwrites communitybased Open-Source software, providing organisations with a guarantee and assurance at zero risk. With the strong and growing interest in the benefits of adopting OpenSource technology within the context Continued on back page...
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For Ambitious Managers of Linux and Mixed IT Environments
Welcome
to the latest issue of ‘The Linux Advantage’.
Avoiding a revolution: An enterprise guide to Virtualization Aram Kananov, Product Marketing Manager EMEA, Platform and Cloud at Red Hat
Over 42,000 IT specialists now receive a copy, or are encouraged to visit its website at www.thelinuxadvantage.com Our aim is to provide new and innovative thinking for real world IT management in the use of Linux and Open-Source.
CHALLENGES Economic conditions are forcing virtually all organisations to re-examine costs and apply more pressure on IT organisations to reduce expenses. This has been the catalyst for the widespread adoption of Linux and OpenSource software, and the outsourcing of expert services. This Autumn I will be attending The Economist’s 2011 ‘The Global Agenda’, chaired
With Virtualization comes the potential to reduce costs and enhance productivity, realising savings across server count, carbon footprint, power consumption and cooling requirements. Whether a CIO is looking to go-greenfor-green’s-sake, enhance brand image or improve competitiveness, Virtualization is an attractive proposition. At its core, Virtualization enables organisations to make the most efficient use of available system resources by consolidating applications onto fewer physical servers. As demands in data centre infrastructure change, or in response to traffic spikes, physical resources that aren’t immediately required are automatically turned off, enabling a more efficient, environmentallyfriendly use of resources.
select number of global CEOs. We will spend the day discussing key topics that are relevant in the current climate. Technology will be part of this conversation. We see the adoption of Linux based systems continuing to accelerate across all sectors of the economy. Our growth of 120% in 2011 proving to be our best on record is testimony to that, and a reward for our investment in
It is advisable for organisations to migrate further workloads once they are confident with the platform and support offered by a vendor.
The true cost of Virtualization
Moving to a virtual environment Virtualization is becoming a commodity, and should be treated accordingly. As the market matures, CIOs are becoming more savvy and waking up to the potentials and limitations of the technology and
Going green not only enhances a brand’s image but can also reap substantial cost savings. By reducing the number of physical servers, organisations can greatly reduce the amount of rack space required which
To execute a successful Virtualization deployment, CIOs must first be clear about what they wish to achieve and determine if the technology is a good fit for the business. Within any organisation, disruptive or revolutionary initiatives have the highest chance of failure. By approaching Virtualization as a stepby-step evolution, organisations can boost their success rate.
specialist people, systems and facilities. We are confident of achieving similar growth in 2012.
Determining what percentage of an organisation’s workload can realistically be virtualized is a good first step. We seldom see organisations immediately migrate the majority of workloads to a virtual environment; instead it is common practice to start with less critical workloads, gain experience with the platform and then increase workloads to include missioncritical ones as well.
Costs savings are the primary reason that enterprises look to move to a virtual environment. Reducing costs whilst driving productivity is in-line with any business objective and Virtualization is a moneysaving technology. That is not to say there are no upfront costs, initial investment is necessary and return on investment (ROI) will result from a reduction in data centre footprint, hardware, maintenance, personnel and management costs. Virtualization technology alone may not reduce OPEX.
by John Micklethwait, Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, his senior editorial team and a
what can be expected from a vendor. It is a vendor’s responsibility to offer guidance on best practice and organisations should not be afraid to ask tough questions and demand answers.
Growth achieved through world class service attracting sound client retention and attracting new major customers and, as the first Red Hat Premier Business Partner in the UK, through our success with the market leading Red Hat technology ecosystem.
equates to substantial savings, especially if an organisation is renting space from a data centre provider. In an organisation’s own data centre, decreased power and cooling coupled with recouped floor space can often see savings of up to 50 per cent.
Is my data secure? Virtualization raises a new set of security concerns. As organisations migrate further workloads into a virtual environment, they expand their technology footprint and the amount of data exposed. In a nonvirtual environment, a hack might gain access to just one server, but in a virtual environment, a hacker has access to every virtual instance which runs on a compromised server. Security risks can arise from personnel within an organisation or from third-party attackers. With an increase in employees wishing to connect personal devices to the office network, it is imperative for enterprises to ensure access to data from personal devices is not abused. Vendors can enable organisations to keep all data off their desktops and end user devices to ensure data does not leave the virtual environment. Employees will be able to view data on their monitors but will be unable to copy or export data from the virtual environment. In fact, this is a common use case scenario in the deployment of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI).
Risk of vendor lock-in For too long, vendors have offered closed proprietary technology stacks, with little or no focus on interoperability with other market players. With no pre-defined open
standards, Virtualization can become the mother of all lock-ins. Vendor lock-ins can have a real impact on both financial organisations’ CAPEX and IT efficiency. The inability to move workloads across different platforms, and difficulty in extracting data from virtual environments, can restrict business. With infrastructure that is defined in a way that’s friendly to IT vendors rather than customers, once users get stuck in one proprietary technology, it’s hard for them to move. Some of the leading vendors in this space are moving towards stricter licensing models that include significant charge for high density workloads, thereby limiting the amount of memory that can be allocated per CPU based on the customer’s licence. This defies one of the founding values of Virtualization: flexibility. With fluctuating workloads, nobody can predict what will be needed on a long-term basis. To read this article in full, please go to: http://www.linuxit.com/s/virtualization
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization can deliver the features, stability and technical advantages you have come to appreciate with better value, lower TCO, and faster ROI. RHEV3 launching later this year, offers improved performance, security, integration, Open-Source capabilities and more.
LinuxIT is probably the only commercial organisation in our field whose consultants and engineers have proven real life experience of helping enterprise customers make the right decisions in their adoption and deployment of Linux and to capitalise on the cost reduction, interoperability, flexibility, reliability, security, scalability and productivity that this affords.
Mini case study Another shining example of a support program that has made a significant contribution to business performance.
“This is proving to be the time for Linux and Open-Source, and the time for LinuxIT.’’
THE CLIENT
THE CHALLENGE
THE SOLUTION
THE BENEFIT
Peter Dawes-Huish, Chairman and CEO
Delta Rail provides software and systems to railway network operators across the world, with specific areas of expertise in dynamic signalling and signalling control solutions, support for operational planning and real time railway management and support for real time railway management. These systems are integral to many worldwide Rail’s’ operators major signalling centres, providing the intelligence needed to make informed decisions and respond rapidly to what is happening on the ground. The system provides comprehensive fault diagnostics and monitoring, plus Automatic Route Setting (ARS) to optimise traffic flow, even under disrupted conditions.
Network rail companies across the globe rely on Delta Rail’s solutions to be up, available and performing 24 hours a day every day. Delta Rail’s solutions are certified only for Red Hat Enterprise Linux® operating systems and Informix databases. The requirement was for the support of the platform of hardware and software. Delta Rail’s priority was to identify a company that could take responsibility for the entire delivered system and manage a responsive delivery of support to customers in the UK, across Europe and Pacific Rim.
LinuxIT was chosen to provide Support24 directly to Delta Rail’s customers. LinuxIT’s unrivalled expertise in supporting mission critical Linux systems made them a natural choice for Delta Rail. LinuxIT provides holistic support including a front line of support to record and manage the in-house Linux and software support as well as orchestrating the hardware support from hardware partners worldwide.
The solution has given Delta Rail the confidence that their solutions are supported globally. This allows Delta Rail to focus on their core strengths of continual product development and improvement leading to increased customer satisfaction. Delta Rail’s customers use their solutions to manage rail networks knowing that there is one point of call to contact when things go wrong and that their systems will be back up and running with the minimum of delay.
LinuxIT PS. Should you need extra copies for colleagues/events, please email marketing@linuxit.com
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SUSE enterprise linux server ‑ the future
We ask Brian Green, Managing Director, SUSE UK & Ireland, about the recent changes to the business virtual, on‑premise and in the cloud. Our intention is to focus, innovate and lead, delivering solutions that are more agile, efficient and responsive.
The
TLA – What about the customer?
TLA – Why has SUSE become an independent business unit?
?
Brian Green (BG) – To accelerate our growth. We are re‑doubling our focus on the enterprise Linux market, and fully expect this enhancement to help drive SUSE to new levels of success, while enabling the Open‑Source ecosystem to continue to prosper and develop over time. We are committed to continuing to deliver a rock‑solid and easy‑to‑manage Linux platform for the key environments our customers demand ‑ physical and
From front page...
relation to community OSS can be all the more challenging. Having said that Linux and many OSS applications are far beyond the adoption chasm, have enterprise business models and are backed by some of the strongest growth organisations in the industry. It is often the proprietary software that looks to be the riskier option. as enterprises consider making strategic investments in OSS, they face the question of indemnification; a standard component of most traditional proprietary software offerings but not always available with OSS. Without a measure of protection against potential copyright infringement claims organisations will find it hard to get OSS beyond the approvals and auditing process - the average risk appetite would simply preclude it from consideration. And it is this final point that serves to differentiate most vividly between those OSS offerings that are enterprise ready and those that potentially introduce unacceptable risk.
Is it the business model that impacts OSS adoption? Open-Source development is commonly viewed as a direct challenge to the traditional “one shop” model of proprietary software development. However, whilst their development models may be poles apart, it does not necessarily follow that their business models are too. The significant disparities of the development models are easily summarised. In the proprietary model, the management, funding, and focus of research and development are undertaken within the boundaries of a single organisation. The primary advantage of the model is that the organisation is able to generate
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BG – As a result of this increased focus on our core market, we will be able to better align our future investments with our customers wants and needs. By operating more autonomously SUSE will focus its resources even more singularly on the needs of both our customers and partners. Focusing on what matters most to customers is the key to our innovation strategy and it is this that will drive the growth of our business. TLA – What about your support for Open‑Source projects?
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BG – Our robust support for other Open‑Source software projects continues as strong as ever. We’re ardent supporters of openSUSE, Linux kernel, Xen, KVM, GNOME, KDE and Linux‑HA, among countless others. Since the company’s founding in 1992, Open‑Source has been at the heart of our business and we look forward to playing a pivotal role in numerous
open‑source communities for decades to come. SUSE remains a Gold Member of the Linux Foundation and we are privileged to provide financial support, development contributions, technical expertise, mentorship and promotional support to many of the people and organisations that make our Linux ecosystem so dynamic.
OS images or complete workloads and appliances for cloud infrastructures is with SUSE Studio. More information about SUSE Studio is available at www.susestudio.com. TLA – How do you see the future of SUSE?
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TLA – Is SUSE a proven platform in terms of mission critical workloads?
BG – SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is suitable for a wide range of workload types and sizes. It provides a robust development environment, as well as a cost‑effective platform for reliable, scalable and secure infrastructure and edge computing services. It has also become recognised as an established platform for running mission‑critical enterprise workloads. TLA – Is SLES 11 offered in cloud computing infrastructures?
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BG – Yes. With the launch of the SUSE Cloud Program, customers are able to run supported instances of SLES 11 Service Pack 1 in cloud service providers’ infrastructures. One of the fastest and easiest ways to build and deploy custom
income from investors and then decide how to optimally allocate those resources to maximize the success of any particular development project. Conversely, in the Open-Source model, control is more diffuse, with development proceeding through relatively decentralised hierarchies. The strength of this Open-Source development model is its potential to innovate faster and produce higher quality products that conform to Open-Standards. Whilst the development model is doubtless responsible for the emergence of a new industry paradigm and should not be undervalued, ultimately a product must be measured against a discrete set of requirements in which the development model is unlikely to feature. What is much more relevant is the business model, as this has the potential to significantly impact on project success rates, capital expenditure, TCO, legal liability and ultimately the value derived from the software during its lifetime.
How and why has the traditional OSS business model developed? Traditional software business models are based on revenues derived from the sale of licenses to use a firm’s copyrighted software. The prevalent Open-Source licence, the General Public License (GPL), gives ‘everyone permission to run the program, copy the program, modify the program, and distribute modified versions – but not permission to add restrictions of their own’. As the software is freely available and developments are open to appropriation, OSS organisations have had to develop business models that add real value to the end user.
Author: Simon Mitchell, Executive Director, LinuxIT
As with any new business model, its success is dependent on the identification and correction of a market imperfection. Correspondingly OSS business model innovation has served to identify the weaknesses and risks associated with the early OSS model and then fortify and mitigate them respectively. What the innovators recognised early on was how critical it is for organisations to comply with government and industry regulations to minimise corporate risk and conform to internal policies relating to industry accreditations, development cycles and enterprise SLA’s. The model adopted by most OSS organisations in the 1990s and early 2000s was simply not to charge for the software but offer support, training, and consulting services that assist users in the design, implementation and management of their OSS solution. It just didn’t go far enough in most cases to make OSS acceptable to all but those with the greatest technical confidence and
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BG – We’re very excited about the future of SUSE as our increased focus will help us better serve customers; we are expecting our share of our rapidly growing market to rise. IDC’s recent report on the Linux market shows that SUSE (formally part of Novell) has increased its market share in each of the last three years ‑ the only vendor to do so! This gain has been achieved by providing SUSE products and services to an array of customers, including the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Colt. We will continue to execute our strategy based upon great product and great support. TLA – So the Geeko is well and truly back?
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Computacenter and I will be bringing my past experience and success to my new role. My team and I are very bullish about the future. Yes I am often heard saying “The Geeko is back, this time with a lot more focus” in other words with an even sharper focus on our core business, greater prominence for the SUSE brand, and closer collaboration with customers, partners and communities, we’re aiming even higher. We are looking forward to engaging with current and future customers in respect of their entire Enterprise Linux needs. Whether that is on a desktop, a physical server, a virtual server or in the cloud SUSE has much to offer. TLA – How can you find out more? BG – There is more information on our entire product and service portfolio at www.suse.com. TLA – Thanks for the interview Brian. We wish SUSE every success.
BG – Absolutely. As I have said SUSE is now an independent business unit, and the UK team is under my leadership. I have held a number of leadership roles at Novell, and prior to that at
More at www.linuxit.com or
highest risk appetite. And it was this to a large extent that inhibited the adoption of OSS then, and continues to do so albeit to a lesser extent today; the potential to put the organisation at risk by leveraging Open-Source components that are not commercially supported, verified or indemnified.
by hundreds of OSS vendors has fuelled the accelerated adoption of OSS we are seeing today.
Deploying applications and services in production environments demands enterprise-class reliability and maintainability over the long term.
It’s all very well having these enterprise OSS business models in place so long as the OSS that organisations want to implement is made available accordingly.
The use of community project software offers no formal guarantee of long term stability, supportability and maintainability, no software or hardware certifications, and perhaps most importantly, no legal assurance. CIO’s have a duty to consider the potential incurrence of significant costs related to the support and maintenance of infrastructure cobbled together from multiple community projects, and worse, the possibility of intellectual property infringement claims. In 2003 one of OSS’s most significant players, Red Hat, radically changed its business model. It withdrew Red Hat Linux and replaced it with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Fedora. RHEL was designed to be a stable platform with industry standard release cycles, offering support and maintenance for up to 10 years with full backward compatibility. It had been certified against hardware and software applications businesses relied on. It offered commercial, vendor backed utility support underpinned by formal, industry standard SLA’s. And again, perhaps most importantly, it offered intellectual property assurance to provide certain safeguards in the event of a legal claim. This was a game changer for Linux and the adoption of similar dual-license business models
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call 0845 606 3002
What challenges remain for the OSS business model and how are they being addressed?
Otherwise, it may be superior quality software from a well-established and organised community, but without the requisite assurances its proliferation in the mainstream will be significantly hampered. Organisations are all too often left with the choice of retaining expensive and less appealing proprietary software because they are unable to safely and efficiently leverage the OSS alternative they prefer. To address this specific issue and help combat the on-going threat to OSS proliferation, in 2011 LinuxIT pioneered in the UK a program to underwrite carefully selected community based OSS. For organisations wishing to cultivate a heterogeneous environment that benefits from the ‘best of both worlds’, there is a significant trend towards convergence, as OSS companies combine the most successful elements of the Open-Source and proprietary paradigms to drive proliferation and gain competitive advantage for themselves and their customers. To contact the author, please email simon.mitchell@linuxit.com or call 0845 606 3002
3
The
For Ambitious Managers of Linux and Mixed IT Environments
Can Open-Source rise to the boardroom challenge? Can Open-Source technologies and expert related outsourcing lead to a virtuous relationship between the Board, organisational IT management, systems and the customer? LinuxIT Marketing Director, Jeremy Comley explores the topic... Well the Information Age is well and truly here and all pervasive impacting upon learning, the labour market, how we live our lives, how business is managed, and how and what customers buy.
New Generation IT The impact IT systems technology can have in ‘empowering the Boardroom’ requires Directors to demand systems that will enable them to achieve their aims. This does not necessarily mean increased investment, often the opposite, but does require a paradigm shift among IT system specialists to actively pursue ‘new generation’ IT strategies and technologies. This new thinking includes Free Open-Source Software (FOSS), alongside expert IT Outsourcing. A move to ‘Open Computing’, often in the context of blended systems, a mix of proprietary and Open-Source technologies, delivering technology advances such as Virtualization and private Cloud.
This article briefly explores the emerging external drivers and common strategic management needs of those managing organisations in the private and public sectors in the context of the FOSS opportunity and how its adoption and deployment can facilitate organisational success. In this the key strategic management drivers were: • Value creation • Cost reduction • Productivity – doing more with less • Business agility • Customer centred innovation While the solutions were based upon the quality of:
• Financial control • Communications • IT system flexibility, reliability and security
A blended approach Of course in today’s IT world it is no longer an ‘all or nothing’ scenario in which customers and vendors choose to use either proprietary or Open-Source software (OSS). Instead, it is a progressive and pragmatic world where the OSS vs. proprietary software dichotomy is replaced by one of healthy competition and cooperation making blended interoperable deployments a perfectly acceptable, and often advisable, solution.
• The business aims, planning and resources • Strategy implementation • Information management
Can Ubuntu be a better operating system choice than Windows for office tasks, and more? Once considered too technical for general office users, Linux generally, and particularly the Ubuntu flavour has come a long way. Ubuntu claim it is a very good candidate for enterprise deployment as an elegant, feature-rich, super-fast and a lightweight operating system that is already proven running on millions of desktops around the world. We decided to ask Andrew Cooper, EMEA Channel Manager, Canonical to understand this and tell us more. TLA – Why is Ubuntu such a valuable option for enterprises?
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AC – After lengthy usability testing and the significant advances we have made in the underlying technology, Ubuntu now provides an intuitive desktop OS that anyone can use and adapt to their own preferences. Ubuntu can be ‘tried’ on any computer in a ‘safe’ manner that will not impact on current data or existing operating system. Ubuntu is Free OpenSource Software (FOSS) and provides licence cost savings and reductions in the cost of maintenance, security, licensing, support and compliance. TLA – But what about security in comparison with Windows?
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AC – Ubuntu is designed to be secure by default, but it has the flexibility to also be locked down to meet specific user needs. Of course being Linux based, there are very significantly less threats targeting the Ubuntu system. It’s a fact that the majority of the viruses and 4
UK Cloud Alliance opens up cloud options
The
to provide end-to-end cloud services
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AC – With Ubuntu it is easy to build systems that focus only on critical applications. It’s customisable and the environment can be adapted to specific tasks or user profiles. Leaner and flexible systems like Ubuntu offer faster deployment and a smaller storage footprint. And, Ubuntu is intuitive too so users can easily complete their day-today office tasks like emailing, creating documents and updating calendars. Ubuntu is designed to support the way organisations work today. It can be installed on commodity hardware but can also provide better performance and security. TLA – So is the transition from Windows to Ubuntu difficult?
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AC – The migration of a high number of users can be a very complex project and we do not recommend it as an initial strategy. We recommend categorising and profiling users to ensure a smooth transition that provides a familiar, easy to use interface. Having said that, switching to Ubuntu is no more of a wrench for users than say, the move from XP or Vista to Windows 7. A move away from Microsoft can also be done gradually with a dual boot option. By engaging with Canonical and its specialist resellers, such as LinuxIT, you can tap into a wealth of experience.
Above all software, and any supporting expert services, must stand on their own merits and be objectively measured in terms of quality, reliability, security, flexibility, reliability and value for money - in relation to alternatives. This requires informed, impartial advice. Something we have been offering for over 12 years. jeremy.comley@linuxit.com
malwares are coded to take advantage of the weaknesses in the Windows operating system. These simply can’t run on Ubuntu. This saves the time, the resources, and expense that organisations invest in protecting their desktops with complex security software and setups. TLA – How can Ubuntu enhance organisational productivity?
The key to success is determining which projects make sense for Open-Source. Savvy organisations tend to consider both proprietary and Open-Source options for projects, and choose the right product for the given situation i.e. ROI calculations must be undertaken using the proper time horizons and with due consideration of the risks/rewards downstream.
TLA – What about the ongoing management and maintenance of Ubuntu in larger organisations?
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AC – Ubuntu is the perfect foundation to build a lean and efficient desktop based operating system. It provides just enough applications for integration but being modular it’s easy to add and remove components and/or automate controlled deployments. We also provide a System Management tool called Landscape that makes Ubuntu easy to manage when deployed in large numbers. Ubuntu also provides tools for deployment automation, maintenance and compliance that can be managed by Landscape. Ubuntu is also perfect for heterogeneous environments alongside Windows PC’s, Macs, netbooks, thin-clients and more. TLA – How can our readers find out more?
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AC – They can download our Ebook at www.ubuntu.com/business/whatsnew or contact one of our specialist technology and service resellers such as LinuxIT. More at www.linuxit.com or call 0845 606 3002
LinuxIT is one of the founding members of a new initiative to bring clarity and trust to UK organisations looking to procure cloud services. The UK Cloud Alliance, a collective of UK-based technology firms and service providers aims to guarantee the full transformational benefits of cloud computing. The Alliance will empower and enable UK organisations looking for new ways to answer their biggest challenges. The objective is to provide medium sized UK organisations with a collection of technology choices that can be delivered via Star’s private cloud platform and serviced by local specialists. This initiative brings together the best that cloud computing has to offer but delivered via local infrastructure and by local partners.
CODE OF CONDUCT The 15 founding members of the UK Cloud Alliance span the breadth of enterprise IT and communications from telephony to security and from hardware migration to Virtualization. LinuxIT and its fellow alliance members support customers by adhering to a strict Code of Conduct that provides transparency and guiding principles to guarantee the customer’s best interests, in addition to Service Level Agreements and any contractual terms. UK businesses now have clarity and confidence in their choice of cloud computing provider.
Jeremy Comley, Marketing Director, of LinuxIT said, “The UK Cloud Alliance is a great way to leverage the benefits of cloud computing from a small and local collective of professional technology specialists. We combine our skills in order to serve UK organisations better than the technology that serves them today, so they are less restricted by their past technology choices and investment decisions.” Ricky Hudson, CEO of Star, commented, “We welcome LinuxIT to the UK Cloud Alliance. Beneath all the hype, cloud computing is very much in demand by a significant and growing proportion of medium sized UK businesses. This is about serving up UK technology to UK businesses because they like being served by local organisations that they can get to know, grow with and trust. Together, Star, LinuxIT and the rest of the Alliance will bring the innovation and value promised by cloud computing to the most dynamic sector of the UK economy.” More at www.linuxit.com or call 0845 606 3002
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Do more than just reduce TCO with Drupal’s Open-Source Social Publishing More and more, Open-Source is presenting not only a cost saving alternative, but an innovation alternative, to proprietary “closed-source” software products.
Web Marketing: from Outbound to Inbound to Interactive Advances in web marketing have dramatically expanded the toolset available to drive awareness and credibility in most markets. Once you have implemented a web content management system, organisations can publish content (outbound) as often as they can produce it.
With the Open-Source (OS) movement entering its third decade organisations need to examine closely the total cost comparisons between Open-Source, proprietary, SaaS outsourcing options or blended system environments for key business solutions.
Videos and audio broadcasts, are inexpensive to produce as multimedia supplements to traditional brochures and HTML web pages. And they can be distributed free of charge via services like YouTube or iTunes.
Enterprise and web content management OS projects are examples of product categories whereby OS is delivering cost and innovation replacements by: • Presenting a far more attractive total cost profile. address this urgency rather differently: • Offering services and support at a lower cost and higher service level than traditional vendors. • Delivering new functionality more quickly than proprietary vendors by cultivating large, active development communities. Organisations are competing to find ways to make their online presence more interactive and welcoming for users: to provide users with multiple opportunities to communicate and share; and ultimately to improve brand perception. And the total cost profiles of three major approaches to social publishing
• The use of traditional, proprietary software solutions with legacy enterprise licensing.
OSS is reliable and secure, and offers adopters flexibility and agility to respond swiftly to changing requirements. More freedom from vendor lock-in is also a key advantage of Open-Source.
• The “white label community management” model, with large up-front project fees, monthly retainers, and service charges for “out of scope” customisation.
Perhaps more importantly, OpenSource is being determined to be a far less risky technology choice than has been perceived in the past.
• The Open-Source model, where organisations pay nothing for core software (free Open-Source software), and can obtain the support and expertise they require to ensure swift and reliable deployment, performance and scalability, 24x7.
Adoption of Drupal worldwide, the growth of the Drupal user community, the emergence of companies, and Drupal experts in support and service like LinuxIT, illustrate that the platform is here to stay. The Drupal development community’s ability to innovate and to deliver is proven and open.
More and more, users are exploiting a broad range of extremely powerful search engines, like Google, to find information about people, products, and services from sources all over the web. Users are coming to web sites and finding products and services of their own initiative (not the vendors’); they arrive as the result of what are now called inbound techniques. The advent of more social interaction models and user-generated content through online support forums, and product ratings and reviews, have given users the ability to interact more directly with organisations via the web, cultivating loyal, repeat visitors and customers. Online marketing success is no longer driven by “outbound” techniques alone – which organisations use to buy contacts or relationships.
Organisations must now embrace “inbound” techniques – whereby users find their way to products, people, or services they are looking for by their own initiative – and once they have attracted them, companies must create engaging, highly interactive relationships with their user communities. A social publishing platform gives you the capabilities required to create these highly interactive sites, which in turn encourages individuals to engage in conversation and join a community.
Social Publishing Is Now an Imperative Whether you are a product company introducing a new consumer packaged goods offering, or a government agency trying to improve citizen engagement, you must support this broad new range of dynamic online interactions: you must become a “social publisher.” Furthermore, you must be able to respond to changes within your market quickly: your social publishing platform must not impose technical barriers to the introduction of new products, the launch of new micro sites, or the delivery of key information to your users, customers, constituents, or competitors. An investment in a critical business strategy like social publishing must be examined in terms of both cost and risk. Social Publishing and Acquia Drupal clearly emerges as a very compelling option on both counts. More at www.linuxit.com or call 0845 606 3002
Open-Source on the desk top – saves over E5m Danish hospital staff move to Libre office 25,000 workers at thirteen hospitals in the Copenhagen region over the next year will begin to use Libre Office, an Open-Source suite of office productivity tools. The group of hospitals is phasing out a proprietary alternative, ‘for long term strategic reasons’, which at the same time saves the group about €5.3 million worth of proprietary licences. This is a consequence of the group’s move to virtual desktops, allowing staff members to login on any PC or thin client. The group found that deploying this new desktop infrastructure would “trigger unacceptably high costs” for proprietary office licenses, says Vivian Thomsen, responsible for IT at the group, quoted by the Danish IT news site Computerworld.
Some 2,500 virtual desktops have been rolled out and a small number of the hospital workers are now testing Libre Office. According to Computerworld, Thomsen says the feedback so far is positive. “Although users are not keen to lose the familiar interface of the proprietary office suite.”To overcome these hesitations, the hospital group is providing training.
Advanced features Dagens Medicin, a news site for local and regional administrations, quotes Thomsen explaining that most of the hospital workers, doctors and nurses, will have little trouble using Libre Office. “Most of them do not need the advanced features of these suites.” Apart from the office suite, the group is using several other Open-Source tools. It is using for example Apache Camel and JCaps to integrate its enterprise applications. “Naturally, one does not rush headlong into using Open-Source within a hospital. We
are not replacing the most critical systems, such as those for patient data. But we are gaining experience by using Open-Source in less critical areas.” The hospital group’s IT manager says that one of the advantages of switching to free and Open-Source software is that ‘in many cases, the Open-Source community is faster in fixing issues than proprietary vendors’.
Third largest project The move is Europe’s third largest migration project involving public administrations using an OpenSource office suite. The largest is the French Gendarmerie, moving some 80k users to Open Office, a suite similar to Libre Office. Second largest is France’s Caisse Nationale d’Allocations Familiales (CNAF), employing Open Office on about 36,000 desktops.
For more information on community Open-Source software, more at www.linuxit.com/technology/Open-Source-community-technology-solutions or call 0845 606 3002
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The big case study Another shining example of how Open-Source technology has made a significant contribution to business performance
LinuxIT’s new visionary animated series builds trust in Open-Source adoption LinuxIT the UK’s Open-Source specialist pioneers the Open-Source IT consultancy space with its new animation – The Open Opportunity.
Flybe Builds Resilient IT Infrastructure with Red Hat THE BRIEF
THE SOLUTION
Originally founded in 1979 (under the name Jersey European), Flybe is Europe’s largest regional airline. A long-standing commitment to excellent service has netted Flybe numerous industry accolades, including the Business Travel Awards “Best Short-Haul Airline” award and Air Transport World’s “Regional Airline of the Year” award.
Finding the right technology partner was not a decision to be taken lightly. “We certainly did our homework, spending a long time in the research phase—in fact, longer than on the subsequent implementation,” said Linsey. “We evaluated the market and talked to the ‘big guns’ to find a vendor that could provide a rigorously tested, easily deployed stack of the frameworks we needed.”
THE CHALLENGE Matthew Linsey, head of strategy and architecture at Flybe, charts the history of Flybe’s long-time commitment to Open-Source software. “We originally made the decision to go the Open-Source route, using communitysupported products, about ten years ago,” said Linsey. “The costs were low, and some great innovations were coming out of the Open-Source community. However, as our business and the frameworks we were using grew in size and complexity, we began to run into integration issues. Total cost of ownership managing all of the different elements started to escalate as well.” In 2009, Flybe decided to migrate from community projects to supported, enterprise Open-Source software before it undertook a refresh of its website. “We looked at the entire infrastructure stack as the ‘pipeline’ for delivering everything for our applications,” said Linsey. Flybe wanted to minimize the risks involved in implementing massive infrastructure change from the ground up. “At that point, we began to feel less comfortable that community Open-Source software could provide the necessary levels of performance, resilience, and security.” Having software that meets exacting certifications was enormously important to ensure effective integration and avoid compatibility issues with Flybe’s Oracle database and other layers of the infrastructure. Service to internal users was another factor. “Using the communitysupported systems then in place, we didn’t feel that we were delivering to the exacting SLAs we’d set ourselves,” said Linsey. 6
“JBoss Enterprise Middleware from Red Hat ticked all the boxes, and in choosing it, we picked the best, most complete, and most versatile solution,” said Linsey. “And while cost was a criterion, it wasn’t the only one. JBoss Enterprise Middleware matched what we were trying to achieve, without huge investment up front and without the risks of using community versions.” Flybe also moved from CentOS, the community enterprise operating system, to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which today touches every part of Flybe’s predominantly HP hardware infrastructure. The major migration project, involving testing and rolling out server hardware, networks, storage, and operating systems, got under way in spring 2010 and took only three months to complete. Now Flybe benefits from receiving regular security updates from Red Hat, as well as access to early patches and support. “In the current recession, no one can predict the future, but moving to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss Enterprise Middleware has provided a secure, reliable, highperforming platform that gives us the agility to anticipate and react quickly to changing conditions.” Matthew Linsey, head of strategy and architecture, Flybe “We have a relatively small but strong technical team, and we found the implementation quite straightforward, even though we were working with aggressive timelines and JBoss Enterprise Middleware was completely new to us,” said Linsey. “It was good to know that Red Hat experts were on hand should we have any queries. And on the occasions we did have queries, we received very
helpful, responsive service. Having a single point of contact reduced some of the complexity typically associated with major projects.”
THE BENEFITS For Flybe, like many airline operators, web-based sales have moved from being a useful adjunct to traditional sales channels to becoming an indispensable ingredient in sustained commercial success. Flybe now uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss Enterprise Middleware to develop and maintain the website that is so crucial to its business. These solutions give Flybe’s customers seamless, reliable access to services and information, including managing their flights, checking in, and pre-booking baggage and seats. The demands on Flybe’s web-based operation have intensified in recent years, with organic company growth, greater brand awareness, increased website traffic, and higher sales volumes. In addition to enabling online bookings, Flybe now provides services from third-party partners, such as insurance, car hire, and parking. This is another reason why infrastructure reliability is so critical. “We’ve achieved our objective of almost entirely eliminating ourselves as a risk factor and ensuring that our part in the mix is based on stable, supported technology,” said Linsey. “One of the important aspects of JBoss Enterprise Middleware from Red Hat is that rather than just fixing our immediate needs, we now have a strategic platform for the next five years, one that will grow and mature with our business,” said Linsey. “We’ll be able to scale out into different areas and are looking to implement JBoss Operations Network to help us with the management and monitoring of our expanding Red Hat environment.” Flybe is also currently evaluating a transition to SOA (service-oriented architecture) to automate ticket systems, among other possibilities. The intention, as Linsey explains, is to move the website from being IT delivery to business delivery. “Business users will be able to map their own processes, manage
their own rules, and integrate more seamlessly with internal services such as financial and reservation systems. It will be a more businessaligned platform, one that is a wholly integrated part of Flybe. Security and stability of the infrastructure, once again, come to the fore as essential factors.”
Watch LinuxIT’s new animation to hear about the accelerating interest and use of Open-Source software (OSS), and why. And, how their unique approach and offering supports its effective adoption. “The purpose of this short film is to provide the facts around Open-Source and remove any fear, misunderstanding or misconception around community OpenSource software adoption,” says LinuxIT Chairman and CEO, Peter Dawes-Huish.
Flybe’s strong online presence is essential to maintaining its commercial success. “In the current recession, no one can predict the future, but moving to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss Enterprise Middleware has provided a secure, reliable, high-performing platform that gives us the agility to anticipate and react quickly to changing conditions,” said Linsey.
ABOUT RED HAT Red Hat was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Raleigh, NC. Today, with more than 60 offices around the world, Red Hat is the largest publicly traded technology company fully committed to Open-Source. That commitment has paid off over time, for them and their customers, proving the value of Open-Source software and establishing a viable business model built around the Open-Source way.
The Open Opportunity – Open-Source Adoption
process today.’’ the most significant technology adoption in Open-Source software represents ‘’The accelerating use and interest
Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology to the enterprise. Their solutions are delivered via subscription and range from operating systems and platforms like Red Hat Enterprise Linux and JBoss Enterprise Middleware, to application and management tools, as well as consulting, training, and support. For more information please contact Red Hat’s Premier Business Partner LinuxIT on 0845 606 3002, or email sales@linuxit.com
“The accelerating use and interest in Open-Source software represents the most significant technology adoption process today. Having proven itself in supercomputing over many years, and more recently with the adoption of Virtualization and ‘the cloud’, Linux based Open-Source software has an enviable heritage and patronage including Google, Facebook, Tesco and Vodafone.” he adds. Through ‘The Open Opportunity’, LinuxIT aims to introduce new and innovative thinking around the introduction of OpenSource and Open-Standard technology; and ‘real world’ IT management solutions that achieve greater system and team productivity, efficiency, reliability, cost reduction, compliance and more. Please visit www.linuxit.com to view the animation
The
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Data centre optimisation A step by step guide Wil Cunningham, an independent consultant who is currently on a contract with LBG as the IT Lead for HBOS LIVE Command and Control and Execution in London, part of the LBG / HBOS Integration, discusses the best ways to optimise your data centre. Or ‘make the most of what you can get’. www.wilpoweritconsulting.com
In the aftermath of the economic downturn, IT budgets have never been so constrained, yet demand for space and power in data centres is ever increasing. So with less money to continue to fund data centre expansion and buy ourselves out of trouble - what can we do? First and foremost the ‘generic’ industry challenge... I’d like to share some of the things that I learned last year at a major High Street Bank, where I ran a ‘Data Centre Optimising Programme’ that solved this problem by focussing on the following...
Step 1: Challenge Policies and Standards Policies are rarely formed pro-actively, most evolve due to past problems, why we do things today are usually the result of an historic problem, either internally or mandated due to external forces. Some historic policies were formed due to previous technology constraints or what was best at a point in time, but do we ever really review or challenge these? I continually challenged policies and asked why were we co-locating test and production systems, why were we allowing critical and non-critical systems to be located within the same data centres, or within shared infrastructure and why we were providing Disaster Recovery services for minor systems? The result of this was senior stakeholder support to change the policies and create a
new ‘Placement Policy/Strategy’. By mandating that test beds, production support beds and production should never share the most valuable/critical data centre space; this allowed me to plan for optimising the scope and spend. Then I challenged the infrastructure standards, reducing the numbers of recovery backup copies taken for these highly resilient systems. Additionally, as resiliency had improved over a decade, we challenged the need for MINOR systems to have a Disaster Recovery kit. Also in a zero growth world, new systems no longer required six year growth capacity, as the appropriate risk was removed due to the levels of ‘built in’ resiliency. We were then able to re-use the freed up storage rather than buying more annually. Additionally, we added power capping limits to ‘idling’ servers that also reduce excess power wastage.
Step 2: Premises The programme had previously created a dedicated global test centre from an old ‘unused’ then re-commissioned data centre. This enabled the transfer of all test and production support infrastructure from our critical data centres to this new testing facility, allowing re-usable production space to be freed up. The programme ‘lifted and shifted’ the kit/building target infrastructure forward where appropriate, provided some consolidation, restacking, and optimisation through technology upgrades, where appropriate. Finally, with multiple
weekend moves, the business units prioritised the test-beds and the technical teams tested the facilities.
Step 3: Technologies The programme utilised Virtualization at ratios of 20:1 to 40:1 to most Wintel and Citrix depending on the age and type of the applications. Vendors helped us in this space as they had tools that scanned our estate both for the low hanging fruit, but more importantly to checkout and assess application compatibility with the Virtualization technologies. For other midrange platforms we employed consolidation that provided a great way of reducing power and space, and allowed a restacking of systems against their individual criticalities. I knew not to stack critical systems with non-critical systems as by default we would be giving MI systems the same level of DR, resilience and support as payments systems which is not cost effective.
Step 4: People I made individuals on each platform accountable for maximising success for their part in data centre optimisation. This covered decommissioning and potential reuse (part of new installations), new technology adoption that benefited the data centres, opportunities, via standards or process and finally general waste / cost reduction – i.e. Gold stocks with 3rd parties at reduced costs. We then created inter platform competition by actively supporting and funding the platforms that had the best ideas with respect to
power and space efficiencies.
Step 5: Funding
We created a real sense of healthy competition. Every platform had its own initiatives, the success came from choosing the right ones and rewarding and recognising the best efforts.
I was ‘vendor agnostic’ which encouraged vendors to bid for business, this generated savings in terms of new kit, support, creating opportunities to ‘bundle up’ deals with BAU spend and benefiting from the experience gained from vendors in other installations. We extended the same simple opportunity sizing and prioritisation model for all infrastructure spend for BAU and for projects. We also introduced a ‘CAPEX’ board that brought these funding elements together and made sure we got the best vendor deals in the context of ‘bundling’.
We created a central log of the opportunities and generically sized them against 4 weighted criteria - Cost / Benefit / Risk / Do-ability (could the platform easily implement and support the change). We kept it simple with a process that was like a cut down RFI. It had to be simple because the platforms didn’t want to spend too much time on opportunities that might not ‘fly’. The platform reps and Data Centre staff felt empowered to challenge each other, however the weighted scores showed the most efficient opportunities. We plotted the opportunities onto a matrix and the top right opportunities were the ones we invested in.
Step 6: Processes I mandated decommissioning as part of the project lifecycle so that all project funding estimates had to contain a percentage of the new infrastructure spend as a decommission cost in the project / programme estimate / business case. By ‘capturing’ decommissioning estimates either at pre-commence or commence, the Data Centre Management (DCM) teams could get the earliest view (along with platform forecast spend and usual capacity plans) of future data centre demand and plan accordingly. This data, along with the actual usage of meter readings, provided the teams with the best chance of efficiently planning to use the space and power, rather than just being reactive. Finally, I developed a mantra for DCM staff that ‘nothing goes in – unless something comes out’ – this ensured that decommissions remained mandatory.
We challenged all internal vendors to join the team and support and get behind our goals. We used Morse as an agile and flexible support and expertise pool, which greatly accelerated the programme. All vendors were keen to sell us new technology but by driving them through the same process as the platforms, we knew we were funding the right initiatives. A major caveat here was that at the coal face the platforms needed to support whatever technologies were recommended by the vendors, so they sponsored the vendor initiatives and had ultimate sign-off against the standards and roadmaps.
World class service catalogue LinuxIT, the only professional blended technology and service specialist in the UK, has launched a new Services Catalogue for its clients and channel partners. It is the most comprehensive Open-Source specialist service catalogue available today and includes: • Best practice expertise in business consulting, systems analysis and architecture.
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• A full portfolio of proven implementation services. • The ITIL service lifecycle mapped to a service portfolio.
Download the catalogue at www.linuxit.com
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The future is open …for better systems, better business and better customer service. More for less
Technology - News in brief We select the right people from our team for the clinic
LinuxIT and Smoothwall extend their partnership LinuxIT and Smoothwall’s partnership has developed from the outset of their trading history in 1999. In the main this has been in the Firewall market. Both organisations have seen significant growth with 2010 being their best trading year to date with revenues up by over 50% at Smoothwall and 100% at LinuxIT. Both parties now see benefits in extending their partnership to include the Smoothwall Web Filtering solution. While Smoothwall see LinuxIT as the specialist with the skills around Open-Source operating systems and technologies to be the perfect partner.
FREE team for a day OSS adoption made easy: As part of their commitment to assisting the private and public sector in adopting Open-Source technology LinuxIT offer free consultations, for up to five organisations per year, who are new to the world of Open-Source. These provide an impartial and informed view of the scope that exists for them to embrace the advantages that flow from the adoption of Open-Source technologies, enterprise and or community based, together with a roadmap outlining how best this could be achieved.
So if you haven’t used an OpenSource, open-standards blended systems specialist like LinuxIT before, or for a while, we’ll give you a team for a day. A sector director, technical architect plus sandwiches and coffee. Free of charge or obligation. Together we will analyse your business requirements and current IT systems strategy and present tailored Open-Source solutions, and a pathway to their delivery. More at www.linuxit.com/services/ free-team-for-a-day
The future is open, that’s how LinuxIT now describes its unique offering. Their new corporate brochure and web site take as their lead the benefits that can flow through the effective adoption of Linux and Open-Source technology and associated services.
site attracts over 5,000 visitors per month. The ultimate Open-Source one stop shop, LinuxITs client base includes Tesco, Cable and Wireless Worldwide, Vodafone and Heinz.
A service business, LinuxIT helps organisations embrace the advantages of Open-Source technology to provide associated services such as improved interoperability, lower costs, reliability, security and scalability. Interest in Open-Source is on a wave and their
To find out how your business could benefit more, call 0845 606 3002 or email sales@linuxit.com
The brochure is available for download at www.linuxit.com/media-centre
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of today’s blended system solutions, which require a mix of enterprise and community based software; enabling the use of community products among organisations is a must.
LinuxIT and Alfresco managING content together LinuxIT and Alfresco now offer the market a true Open-Source alternative Enterprise Content Management system. Alfresco brings its leading best-of-breed Open-Source technologies. While LinuxIT provides over 12 years of experience and success in Open-Source technology and associated services.
Collaboration pays dividends LinuxIT and Zarafa have agreed a partnership to offer Open-Source groupware and collaboration software. Zarafa is the European market leader providing an OpenSource software platform option for email, collaboration, calendaring and tasks.
Standardisation and proven performance LinuxIT and Puppet now offer one of the leading Open-Source platforms for IT systems management. Puppet is an enterprise platform that standardises the way IT staff deploy and manage infrastructure in the enterprise and the cloud. For more information on any of the above visit http://www.linuxit.com/ technology/technology-vendors or call 0845 606 3002
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How the software is selected for inclusion in the program
Oracle compatibility offered by Postgres can add up to big savings EnterpriseDB is the only global provider of enterprise-class products and services based on PostgreSQL, the world’s most advanced and independent Open-Source database. Postgres Plus Advanced Server provides the most popular enterprise class features found in the leading proprietary products but at a dramatically lower total cost of ownership across transaction intensive, as well as read intensive, applications. Advanced Server also enables seamless migrations from Oracle that save up to 90% of the cost of typical migrations.
Community commitment EnterpriseDB employs industry thought leaders and more PostgreSQL Open-Source community experts than any other organisation and provides customers in all market segments with unparalleled 24x7 support, value packed software subscriptions and training services.
With hundreds of customers worldwide, including Sony, Vonage, McKesson, EnterpriseDB has earned the reputation as a trusted technology and business partner. LinuxIT are an EnterpriseDB business partner and provider of specialist professional and support services.
Founded in 2004 the EnterpriseDB goal has been to disrupt the database oligopoly with an equally capable product based on Open-Source principles and development that offer dramatic cost savings. The company chose PostgreSQL as its technology foundation because it had been proven over 20 years of largescale commercial deployments, its thriving developer community, and its reputation for being the strongest Open-Source database available.
Find out more at www.linuxit.com or call 0845 606 3002
LinuxIT will verify software by running it through an accreditation process. The program which is backed by a leading global insurance-based financial services provider and a LinuxIT Service Level Agreement enables LinuxIT to fix or replace software that does not work as expected within a given timeframe. Cover to the value of £5m is provided. Peter Dawes-Huish, Chairman and CEO says, “Open-Source software comprises commercial and community versions, commercial where you pay for a structured development process, and have the reassurance of indemnification and essential support. But with LinuxIT we have an indemnification product which enables organisations to select community versions with complete piece of mind.” More at www.linuxit.com or call 0845 606 3002
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Published by: LinuxIT (Europe) Ltd LinuxIT House
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