The Linux Executive Report from IBM
May 11, 2011
The Linux Executive Report from IBM: May 11, 2011. 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
Inna Kuznetsova, vice president, marketing and sales, Systems Software & ISVs, IBM, delivered a keynote at the Red Hat Summit. IBM was a premier sponsor of the event which took place in Boston last week. The year 2011 is special for IBM because "it is our centennial," marking 100 years of innovation and progress, said Kuznetsova, who offered a brief overview of the some of the iconic moments of IBM's years of technological leadership while emphasizing that IBM's journey of innovation and leadership is continuing.
Virtualization is one of the hottest topics in computing today, helping organizations save money by sharing IT resources and providing the enabling platform for cloud computing. As with every new technology, however, there is always the risk of proprietary lock-in to single-vendor platforms and consequent loss of flexibility and choice for end users.
Novell announced the expansion of its Long Term Service Pack Support (LTSS) program for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, lengthening customers' access to the company's Linux support for each service pack release. For the first time, long term support is also provided globally for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z. Novell further announced the immediate availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 4 (SP4), bundling all previously released patches, fixes and updates for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, while supporting the newest hardware, storage systems and networking devices, including Intel's latest Xeon E7 processor family and AMD's latest Opteron processors.
At the Red Hat Summit, Red Hat and IBM announced that they are working together to make products and solutions based on KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) technology the open virtualization choice for the enterprise. Together, the companies are driving adoption of the open source virtualization technology through joint development projects and enablement of the KVM ecosystem.
Inside Linux at IBM
Did you miss a webcast covering important information about technologies you need to learn more about? IBM offers replays on-demand of webcasts presented by IBM experts and partners.
Server virtualization has quickly become a trusted, mainstream solution aboard x86 servers. KVM, which stands for Kernel-based Virtual Machine, is the newest hypervisor to enter the virtualization market, and it joins a market that already has no fewer than four other major solutions in place.
Linux running on IBM System x and IBM BladeCenter provides an open, reliable and secure IT environment that can scale as workloads demand.
Inside IBM's Linux Partners
Jean Staten Healy, director of Cross-IBM Linux and Open Virtualization, will deliver a keynote titled, "Open Virtualization: Ready for Business" at the Red Hat Partner EMEA Partner Summit which will take place June 5-8 in Dublin, Ireland.
SUSE Linux Enterprise is the ideal end-to-end solution for running critical business on IBM zEnterprise System.
In light of Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems, enterprise customers on the Sun SPARC-Solaris platform face uncertainty in ongoing support and development, and should consider alternatives, according to a Cabot Partners white paper sponsored by IBM and Intel.