PeerDirect Moves on Linux

Responding to customers growing demand for Linux support, PeerDirect Corp., an operating company of Progress Software Corp., on Monday will announce native support for Linux on its flagship suite, PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise.

Officials said the move will enable customers to decentralize and distribute database-driven business applications to far-flung locations using Linux-based application servers and databases.

PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise allows companies to decentralize business applications by automatically and bidirectionally synchronizing, distributing and replicating corporate data and applications across multiple locations, desktops and mobile devices.

PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise allows automatic bidirectional data synchronization between any combination of databases, officials said, including those from Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp., Progress, IBM, Sybase Inc., IBMs Informix line, as well as PostgreSQL. The support for heterogeneous database environments enables companies to run Linux in remote deployment platforms, even if they are running Windows or Unix in data centers.

Greg Burnell, chief operating officer for TeamShare Inc., a software company specializing in Web-based enterprise collaborative software solutions, has been beta testing the product for about 45 days. Hes happy about PeerDirects move, given the fact that TeamShare was already moving toward Linux. “[Linux] provides a low-cost solution for some people, but it still provides a very good [technical] solution,” said Burnell, in Colorado Springs, Colo. “We think Linux isnt going anywhere, and we want to be part of it, and we were very pleased they made the decision to move into that platform. We were already under way with using Linux-based application servers [Apache and BEA Systems Inc.s WebLogic].”

Mark Lorion, director of marketing for the Bedford, Mass., company, said customers are also increasingly interested in running Linux on remote devices such as PDAs, small laptops and even cell phones. In the future, such deployments could potentially reach consumer devices such as DVD players, for example, Lorion said. With Linux running on ever-more such devices, the need for synchronization and replication that support them is growing, he said. He declined to discuss any PeerDirect plans to support devices such as DVDs, however.

Pricing per server for PeerDirect Distributed Enterprise for Linux deployed will be between $500 and $1,000 and will be shipping next week.