The Linux Executive Report from IBM
July 30, 2013
The Linux Executive Report from IBM: July 30, 2013 . A monthly summary of important trends and market research, case studies and information about IBM's Linux initiatives of interest to senior management.
Linux News
IBM has formed a definitive agreement to acquire CSL International, an Israel-headquartered provider of virtualization management technology for IBM's zEnterprise system. Providing a strategic investment in the System z portfolio, the acquisition deepens the consolidation and cloud capabilities by offering simplified management of the virtualization environment. CSL International's CSL-WAVE software enables companies to monitor and manage their z/VM and Linux on System z environments.
In a new blog, Jeff Scheel, Chief Engineer for IBM Systems & Technology Group, Software Defined Systems, answers frequently asked questions (FAQs) about KVM on Power, such as when KVM will be available on Power and how IBM plans to position KVM alongside PowerVM.
Advancing the search for more versatile and less expensive materials for solar energy, Harvard has launched a free database that catalogs the suitability of 2.3 million organic, carbon compounds for converting sunlight into electricity. Harvard's Clean Energy project screened the molecules using World Community Grid, which was created and managed by IBM, and provides computing power to scientists by harnessing the unused cycle time of volunteers' computers. Participants get involved by downloading software to their Linux, Windows, or Mac computer that runs when they take breaks or work on lightweight computer tasks. The software receives, completes, and returns small computational assignments to scientists.
IBM has completed the acquisition of SoftLayer Technologies Inc., a cloud computing infrastructure company based in Dallas, Texas. SoftLayer joins IBM's new cloud services division, which combines SoftLayer with IBM SmartCloud into a global platform. The new division, led by General Manager James Comfort, will provide a broad range of choices to both IBM and SoftLayer clients, ISVs, and channel and technology partners.
IBM introduced its new zEnterprise BC12 (zBC12) mainframe designed for the latest in analytics, cloud, and mobile computing. Starting at $75,000, IBM is making the advanced enterprise server accessible to organizations of all sizes. The new zBC12 provides clients with high levels of performance, flexibility and scale, a faster processor at 4.2 GHz, and two times the available memory over its predecessor, the z114. And, to enable clients to grow into their system, the zBC12 also offers a pay-as-you-grow approach.
In a new blog, Jim Wasko, Director, IBM Linux Technology Center, writes about the changing role of IBM's Linux Technology Center and what it means to the open source community: At the IBM Linux Technology Center (LTC), we sometimes forget—because we have been around so long—that for some, the LTC is "new" news. Thanks to the success of Linux and other open source projects, there are people continually joining the open source technology ecosystem. Often, they don't know our history, so we want to explain how we act as a resource for not only IBM but also for our partners and customers
IBM announced strong client and business partner support for the new version of its DB2 database software, now generally available. The new software—which represents the work of hundreds of IBM developers and researchers in labs around the world—adds innovative technology called BLU Acceleration that makes it simpler, more economical and faster to analyze the massive amounts of data generated by computers, mobile devices, sensors and social networks. The new IBM DB2 10.5 with BLU Acceleration aims for analytics at the speed of thought with a range of made-in-IBM-Labs advances to significantly speed analytic workloads for databases and data warehouses.
Inside Linux at IBM
Based in Zagreb, Croatia, Altus Information Technologies provides cloud computing and data center services for a variety of clients in many different industries. The company was founded in 2011 as a subsidiary of Markoja d.o.o. and specializes in helping its clients find the right mix of IT infrastructure services to meet their needs—and their budgets. Altus IT needed a flexible, scalable, cloud-computing infrastructure to help broaden its offerings for corporate customers, while also increasing efficiency within its own data center.
Founded in 1793, Bonhams is a privately owned British auction house and one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. Bonhams needed a scalable, cost-effective system for remote management and full disaster recovery between its data centers in New York and San Francisco.
Credit Unions System for Brazil (Sicoob) is the largest credit union system in Brazil, offering banking and credit services to more than 2.5 million people. To support the ongoing rapid growth of its business and the development of new capabilities, Sicoob needed a completely new model for IT. The organization made a strategic decision to virtualize its Intel processor-based distributed servers to the IBM System z platform. Today, Sicoob is running more than 300 SUSE Linux-based virtual servers on IBM z/VM across two IBM zEnterprise 196 servers. An IBM System z10 server located at a second site provides a disaster-recovery option and hosts the development landscape. The transformation of its IT infrastructure has enabled Sicoob to experience growth of 600% in mobile, 200% in internet, and 60% in in-branch transactions; avoiding $1.5 million in electricity costs annually; while delivering new services faster.
Founded in 1991, Brodos AG is one of the leading distributors of telecommunications hardware, software and services in Germany. The company maintains some 5,000 retail outlets, employs around 370 people, and in 2010 achieved revenues of approximately $330 million. However, as Brodos won new customers, the company found that existing IT systems proved unable to scale to meet its workload. This threatened to impact the company's ability to maximize new business opportunities. Brodos consolidated to IBM BladeCenter HS23 servers with Intel Xeon processors, running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with KVM, and an IBM Storwize V7000 Unified disk system. Brodos can scale up the IBM solution quickly and easily to provide for new customers.
A wide-ranging assortment of case studies illustrating how organizations have successfully implemented KVM for business advantage is available.
A new video on YouTube spotlights North Carolina State University, one of the largest technical colleges in the Southeast. NCSU uses the PowerLinux platform to manage big data and IBM Content Analytic Studio on the cloud to develop a smarter computing environment that uses the appropriate technologies based on the questions they are trying to answer.
IBM hosts Linux on System z Executive Council meetings in locations across the United States to provide education on Linux on System z. Check back frequently for information about educational opportunities coming to a city near you. Information is also available about Live Virtual Classes for z/VM and Linux.
Like most mid-market IT organizations, you've probably dabbled with virtualization and are ready to openly embrace it in your data center or server room. But which virtualization architecture do you choose—VMware, Hyper-V or KVM? Backed by IBM and commercial developers like Scale Computing, a member of the Open Virtualization Alliance and an IBM partner, KVM is fast becoming a first choice for virtualization and IT managers seeking to eliminate recurring license fees associated with other commercial solutions.
Established at the end of 2012, Zetark is a specialist provider of cloud-based storage and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions. Zetark was founded to offer hosted data storage services to local and regional businesses of all sizes. As a start-up business, Zetark needed to create a scalable IT infrastructure rapidly and at low cost. Zetark chose IBM PureFlex System with Red Hat Linux, open source KVM virtualization technology, and FileTek StorHouse software to power its new strategic platform for enterprise cloud storage services.
IBM is active on all forms of social media, providing an easy way for customers and partners to stay up to date with the latest Linux and KVM information.
In a new blog, Jean Staten Healy, Director, Worldwide Linux and Open Virtualization, IBM, reflects on the latest Red Hat Summit held earlier this month in Boston. "As I left the conference this year, I was struck by the thought that something was very different," she writes. "Whether customers are discussing the use of KVM in the cloud, or adding it as a second hypervisor for 'hyperdiversity,' the debate about whether KVM is technically ready is now over. It has achieved impressive SPECvirt and TPC-C benchmarks, security certifications, and according to IDC, is showing impressive growth in unit shipments. We are no longer explaining what KVM is. Instead, this year, we were able to show a robust portfolio of clients that have realized success with KVM. The conversation around KVM has changed."
Traxpay is an innovative financial services company headquartered in Mountain View, CA, with international offices in Cologne and Frankfurt, Germany. When the company saw the opportunity to create a new super-fast financial transaction service for midsize and enterprise corporations, it worked with IBM Business Partner EFiS EDI Finance Service to build and deploy an innovative transaction platform, based fully on cloud services that scale up and out at the touch of a button.
Inside IBM's Linux Partners
Michal Svec, a Senior Product Manager at SUSE, writes about new technology in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 in a blog post.
The Linux Foundation 2013 event and co-located Linux training schedule includes Linux events worldwide and co-located Linux training opportunities, answering the global demand for technical Linux content, knowledge and collaboration. Go here for the complete list of 2013 events and training opportunities.
SUSE announced the general availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 3, which features additional industry-standard hardware support and open source features and enhancements. With Service Pack 3, customers can achieve better workload performance in a more scalable, secure and cost-effective manner.
The Fedora Project, a Red Hat-sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration, has announced the release of Fedora 19 (code-named "Schrödinger's Cat"), the latest version of its free open source operating system distribution. The new release enables users of 3D printers, such as RepRap, to be fully satisfied with software in the repositories, without having to download binary blobs or run Python code from git; provides Kerberos enabled, LDAP replicated, two-factor authentication for FreeIPA; and updates GNOME to the latest upstream release