Business Objects Launches BI Platform for Linux

Business Objects' XI package for Business Intelligence—the fulfillment of the roadmap it laid out after acquiring Crystal Decisions—supports Red Hat and Novell flavors of Linux.

Business Objects XI package for Business Intelligence—the fulfillment of the product roadmap the company laid out after it acquired Crystal Decisions Inc. late in 2003—now supports both Red Hat and Novell flavors of Linux, the company announced at LinuxWorld on Tuesday.

Business Objects S.A.s BusinessObjects XI and its Crystal Reports Server XI, already available for Windows and Unix, combine query, reporting and analysis technology from Crystal Decisions Crystal Reporting, Crystal Enterprise and Crystal Analysis products with several pieces of Business Objects BI (Business Intelligence) technology.

The XI products now will support Novell Inc.s SuSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Inc.s Enterprise Linux.—a decision Business Objects management says will help to drive adoption of Linux.

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So far, organizations have built databases on Linux, have standardized on Linux, and prefer the platform for its security and reliability, said James Thomas, director of product marketing for Business Objects.

Cost is, of course, another attractive aspect: Enterprises can deploy Unix-scale security and reliability on the cost of Linux hardware. But with all the pluses, organizations have been waiting for applications, as opposed to basic infrastructure, to be available on Linux.

"Linux has been adopted for things like databases, but not a lot of market-leading applications, whether [enterprise resource planning] or [customer relationship management] or BI, are available on that platform," Thomas said. "Availability of XI on Linux can help drive adoption of Linux deeper into organizations."

"We are excited about the release of Business Objects XI on Linux because it will help us expand our BI deployment while keeping hardware costs down," said Amy Miller, a Senior Data Analyst at the University of Pennsylvania, in a statement.

"Weve been a long-time Business Objects customer and rely on BI for management and analysis of the Universitys administrative data in many areas, most recently including information from our new development and alumni relations system," she said. "As with many universities, more and more of our application servers are on Linux. Deploying Business Objects XI on Linux will help us increase our return on investment on both our BI deployment and hardware."

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