BBDO Interactive Turns To Linux Servers

In another win for Linux, advertising agency BBDO Interactive on Wednesday will announce that it would use Linux to develop and host Web sites and applications for those clients who require availability of 99.99 percent and higher for their business-critical applications.

Andreas Walter, the IT manager for the German agency, which provides complete Web hosting and infrastructure solutions, said that BBDO Interactive was deploying SteelEye Technology Inc.s LifeKeeper clustering software running on Linux-based IBM eServer xSeries servers and IBM DB2 Enterprise Edition for Linux databases.

“We were looking for high degrees of flexibility, reliability and ease of management to keep systems and applications up and running. We found that the integrated IBM eServer xSeries and SteelEyes LifeKeeper offerings for Linux deliver not only the benefits we need, but also provide a time-to-market competitive advantage as well as the ability to rapidly deploy and easily manage our platforms with a price/performance advantage thats unbeatable” Walter said.

Richard Michos, an Vice President and Business Unit Executive for Linux Servers at Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM, said BBDO Interactive would now be providing a whole range of its clients in the automotive, retail, financial and healthcare industries with business-to-business services.

Linux was increasingly being chosen as the operating system of choice for customers using DB2 and IBM xSeries servers, he added.

“Customers like BBDO Interactive are responding to the cost savings, performance and efficiency of Linux on Intel servers with the reliability of our database software,” Michos said. “By working with SteelEye, we now have a combined hardware and software Linux solution that provides a complete, easy-to-install solution for high availability customer requirements,” he said.

BBDO Interactive had selected IBMs xSeries hardware for its cost-effectiveness. A solution from Sun Microsystems Inc. had not even been considered, he said, declining to discuss specific details of the contract or pricing.