The Linux Executive Report from IBM
May 30, 2013
The Linux Executive Report from IBM: May 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
At Red Hat Summit 2013, IBM will showcase use cases for IBM, Red Hat, and related partner products and services, as well as provide insight into emerging technologies and what they represent to customers. For the 9th consecutive year, IBM is a premier sponsor of the event, taking place at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, June 11-14. You can register for Red Hat Summit at www.redhat.com/summit.
Two years after Watson's winning performance on the game show Jeopardy!, the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor has been launched by IBM, providing a system to help customer-facing personnel assist consumers more quickly than previously possible. Delivered through cloud-delivered services and online chat sessions, IBM Watson will empower customer service agents to provide fast, data-driven answers, or sit directly in the hands of consumers via mobile device. In one click, the solution's "Ask Watson" feature will quickly help address customers' questions, offer feedback to guide their purchase decisions, and troubleshoot their problems.
Extending its reach in China, IBM has opened its first Linux innovation center for Power Systems clients and business partners. The Power Systems Linux Center, located inside IBM's China Systems Center in Beijing, will make it simpler for software developers to build and deploy new applications for big data, cloud, mobile and social business computing on open technology building blocks using Linux and the latest IBM POWER 7+ processor technology. Along with the IBM Power Systems Linux Center, IBM is also announcing a new collaboration with Red Hat and SUSE to meet increasing demand from businesses in China for optimized and pre-integrated computing systems running enterprise applications on Linux.
In a new blog, Jean Staten Healy, Director, Worldwide Linux and Open Virtualization, IBM, observes that open source hypervisor KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is gaining ground in the enterprise. According to Staten Healy, the trajectory of enterprise adoption of KVM is reminiscent of the early days of Linux since organizations, by now familiar with server virtualization, are evaluating not only hypervisors from the current market leaders but also open source approaches.
The increasing demand for cloud computing, along with keen interest in virtualization and mobile technologies, is fortifying the position of Linux in the enterprise, according to The Linux Foundation's third annual study on Linux adoption by the world's largest enterprises. Among the key findings from The Linux Foundation's 2013 Enterprise End User Report on enterprise Linux use, is the fact that more than 80% of respondents expect to increase the number of Linux servers over the next five years.
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.
A wide-ranging assortment of case studies illustrating how organizations have successfully implemented KVM for business advantage is available.
IBM Edge2013 is the smart and efficient way to catch up on industry directions, trends and the most up-to-date technical content for storage in 4.5 days of intensive training and hands-on labs. The event which will be held June 10-14 in Las Vegas, will provide technical training to IT management and professionals faced with the challenges of storing rapidly growing amounts of information, needing to stay responsive to a changing business environment and controlling costs.
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.
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.
White papers from IBM and analyst companies on topics related to Linux and KVM are available for download.
Inside IBM's Linux Partners
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.
The latest openSUSE distribution, version 12.3, is now available. According to a blog post by Jos Poortvliet, openSUSE 12.3 completes the integration of systemd and provides a better system log experience with journald. In addition, reliable graphical package management tools and a new theme bring a consistent experience from boot to desktop.
Red Hat Inc. has announced the completion of seven Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 certifications from the U.S. government's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), marking the culmination of the company's largest certification effort to date with the U.S. government.
Registration is open for SUSECon, SUSE's annual global user conference. The event will be held November 12-15, 2013, at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.