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Customer demand is the reason Unisys has made SuSE Linux directly available on its ES7000 servers, says Mike Dooner, Unisys Australia-New Zealand systems and technology marketing director.
"As we see organisations moving towards standardisation, we've seen some demand for enterprise Linux where people have RISC versions of Unix, are looking for better TCO and believe Linux offers that.
"Our strategy is to move people to Windows, but there are some clients with significant Unix skills, especially in the public sector, who want to go to Linux."
Unisys announced earlier this month it would sell and support SuSE Linux on its ES7000 range, a change from the previous arrangement where Linux could be run on the servers but customers had to make their own arrangements for installation and support.
Dooner says the recently released Linux kernel version 2.6 is what made it all possible.
"With version 2.6, we can support dynamic partitioning, the ability to shift workload based on end-user requirements and job profiles on the day."
Dynamic partitioning, which allows processing power to be automatically shifted to applications that need it, "has been missing from Linux, but version 2.6 makes it available," Dooner says.
Unisys claimed in a statement on August 3 that its offering was "the first ever dynamic partitioning capability on Linux for Intel-based servers," but US publication TechWorld questions that claim. Writer Manek Dubash says "IBM delivers similar, if not identical technology — for example, IBM's iServer series allows dynamic resource allocation, including under Linux as well as AIX and OS/400."
Dooner says Unisys is working with Red Hat Linux to also make Red Hat Enterprise Server available, a move scheduled to happen in March or April.
"When Red Hat version RHES4 is available, we'll certify it and make it available."
The version of SuSE Linux that incorporates the 2.6 kernel and makes Unisys' offering viable is version SLEs9.
Dooner says no New Zealand customer have yet opted for the supported Linux version of the ES7000, but existing ES7000 customers include Westpac, Foodstuffs and Griffins.
Suse Linux will run on up to 32 processors and Red Hat Linux on up to 16, according to Steve Rawsthorn, Unisys vice president of sales and marketing for systems and technology in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. For support and service, Unisys will provide the main point of contact with customers, and handle first-line support, Rawsthorn says.
Rawsthorn says Unisys isn't turning its back on Microsoft, supplier of the Windows operating systems that previously shipped on all ES7000 models.
"We see this as an incremental revenue opportunity for us with Linux. We don't see it detracting from what we do with Microsoft," Rawsthorn says. The company was prevented from bidding for some contracts because it did not support Linux, he says.
Unisys is planning to expand its ES7000 range in the near future, and future models will be compatible with Microsoft's operating systems, says Rawsthorn.
Unisys said some organisations are already running Linux on ES7000 machines, including Pennsylvania State University, the Florida Department of Children and Families, South African healthcare provider MedScheme and Policia Investigaciones de Chile, the Chilean equivalent of the US FBI. These early adopters had "very little" help from Unisys in doing so, Rawsthorn says.
One area where Linux may steal a march on Microsoft's operating system is in its support for dynamic partitioning.
ES7000 hardware has been ready for dynamic partitioning for years, but so far no operating system has been able to make use of it, according to Andy Carter, Unisys server product manager for EMEA. "You won't have that in Windows until Longhorn comes along," he says.
The hardware will cost the same for all operating systems, Rawsthorn says, but the cost of the software licenses and service contracts will vary between the Windows and Linux versions.
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