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As the Linux and open-source faithful flock to San Francisco for the annual LinuxWorld conference this week, the legal brouhaha between IBM and The SCO Group does not appear to be having any effect on customer willingness to implement the operating system or vendors ability to deliver for the enterprise.
Linux experts say the show will all but ignore the SCO controversy and instead focus on the growing mission-critical position of Linux. Hewlett-Packard Co., Red Hat Inc. and SuSE Linux AG are just a few of the companies planning Linux announcements at the show.
Many customers have so far also shrugged off the SCO threats and are moving forward with Linux projects.
Travel Web site Orbitz LLC, of Chicago, runs more than 750 Linux machines in its production environments and continues to roll more out every month. A company spokeswoman told eWEEK that SCOs litigation is having no effect on Orbitzs decision to move forward with Linux plans.
Major vendors also continue to roll out new Linux-based products and services, including HP, which this week will announce the new LC (Linux Compute) cluster. It will provide a turnkey cluster ranging from 16 to 128 nodes and offer users a choice of different interconnects and management software as well as different versions of Red Hat software, said HP officials, in Cupertino, Calif.
The LC Series is an out-of-the-box solution, using ProLiant DL380 and DL360 servers running Linux, including racks, software and interconnects for the entry-level-to-midrange Linux computational market, said Mike Balma, HPs Linux business strategist.
The starting price for a 16-node, entry-level LC cluster with Fast Ethernet is $75,000, while a 128-node, high-performance LC cluster will start at about $713,000, which includes integration, installation, testing and shipping, Balma said.
On the management side, HP is rolling out the ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment Pack for Linux, which will automate the process of deploying and redeploying server software on its ProLiant servers. In addition, HPs ServiceGuard management software will now support Red Hat Enterprise Server and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8. They are certified for up to 16 nodes. The software includes MySQL and Oracle Corp. tool kits for rapid integration and increased HP ProLiant and StorageWorks portfolio coverage.
Support is also planned for 64-bit HP Integrity servers late this year. Another offering, HP OpenView GlancePlus for Linux, is software that helps monitor performance in Linux systems so customers can fine-tune the performance of a system.
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In addition, HP and BEA Systems Inc. will announce next week that they have expanded their alliance to deliver comprehensive enterprise Linux solutions. “We will have a blueprint for those customers who want to deploy, say, a Web application server environment with HP and BEA and how we have integrated the offering and pretested it,” Balma said.
IBM last week announced a new server, a DB2 Linux integrated clustering environment, extended Linux support for its Lotus Software divisions client and server software, as well as several key Tivoli offerings.
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“We are moving full steam ahead with Linux, which will be evident at LinuxWorld as we roll out evidence of [Linuxs] continuing momentum and proof points of maturity in mission-critical applications. This is real stuff, and customers are doing real things with Linux,” said Scott Handy, director of Linux software solutions for IBM, in Somers, N.Y.
Red Hat next week will discuss a new strategy to enable Web applications development. The Raleigh, N.C., company is working with open-source organizations and developing offerings aimed at deploying and developing open-source applications, spokeswoman Leigh Day said.
SuSE will also use the show to promote its deal with Sun Microsystems Inc. under which its SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8.0 will be preinstalled on Suns x86 Intel Corp.-based commodity server line, said Holger Dyroff, who heads SuSEs North American operations in Oakland, Calif. That deal follows a similar one between Sun and Red Hat.
SuSE also becomes a Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition source licensee and will distribute Suns Java Virtual Machine with all its Linux products. “This is the first step in our relationship with SuSE,” Ann Wettersten, a Sun systems software vice president, told eWEEK, adding that software for the server will be available this fall.