Stronger Linux support from software vendors and the ability to control the open source software is spurring large corporations to accelerate their adoption of Linux, according to users who spoke last week at LinuxWorld Expo 2004.
NEW YORK – Stronger Linux support from software vendors and the ability to control the open source software is spurring large corporations to accelerate their adoption of Linux, according to users who spoke last week at LinuxWorld Expo 2004.
While vendors from IBM to Red Hat displayed their latest enterprise-focused Linux-based hardware and software, an estimated crowd of 11,000 descended on the Jacob Javitz Center with many users talking up Linux strategy and developments.
At Bank of America, Linux has gained such a presence that the firm now has an IT executive dedicated to the technology.
“Linux is one of those technologies that provides the proverbial white sheet of paper,” says Tim Golden, director of Linux design and engineering at Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C. “Whereas many legacy technologies can shackle users, Linux [and open source] can let you break that cycle.”
The nation’s largest bank (in terms of number of branches) uses Linux extensively for its Web servers, and applications such as Reuters’ information delivery. The firm also is looking at rehosting its Tivoli network management infrastructure on Linux and migrating some Oracle databases.
“Any application that can run on Linux, we’ll consider it,” Golden says.
The firm takes a structured approach to Linux, Golden says. IT staff evaluate and audit Linux software and other open source tools, such as Apache, MySQL databases and Perl, then customizes it to meet Bank of America’s standards. Code also is distributed via Red Hat’s RPM software package management and delivery technology. This has contributed to a reduction in operational and management costs at Bank of America as a result of its Linux usage.
“Our goal is to have our Linux administrators manage 2.6 times as many servers as our Unix people,” Golden says. “We’re getting very close to achieving that.”
When Northern Trust, a Chicago financial services firm, looked at Linux two years ago, “a lot of the software that was important to us at the time was not quite ready to run on Linux,” says Robert Schwartz, vice president of worldwide technology for the company. “The second time we looked at Linux [at the end of 2003], things had changed.”
Schwartz says Northern Trust had deployed Linux on its mainframes several years ago as virtual servers, for running smaller tasks. But a big part of Northern’s decision to use Linux was BEA Systems’ migration of its Weblogic application server to the open source platform, he says. In addition to the mainframes, the firm now runs 80 applications on BEA on Intel-based Linux servers. But the goal was not cost savings, he says.
“Cheap is a relative term,” Schwartz says. Lower acquisition costs promised by Linux vendors is largely a myth. “Diversification of hardware and software platforms was more important to us,” he says. Running key enterprise applications on commodity hardware and software has given Northern Trust more flexibility in its dealings with vendors.
Another message Schwartz gave was that large organizations must pick their spots when migrating one operating system to Linux.
“There are transition costs that, while I wouldn’t say took us by surprise, we might not have had a full appreciation for,” he says.
One area was a plan to migrate file and print servers from Windows to Linux.
“We thought that migration would be like falling off of a log,” Schwartz says. “Then we ran into issues with Active Directory integration, print-driver issues. In the end, it just didn’t work for us.”
On the show floor, vendors made security and management announcements around Linux that address some of the concerns of users such as Bank of America’s Golden and Northern Trust’s Schwartz.
IBM and SuSe announced they had achieved new levels of security and operations certification for SuSe Linux running on Big Blue’s hardware. The companies announced that SuSe Linux Enterprise Server 8 with Service Pack 3 running on IBM Intel servers achieved Controlled Access Protection Profile compliance under the Common Criteria for Information Security Evaluation, commonly referred to as CAPP/EAL3+. The companies said this certification level will let the Linux hardware/software combination meet the strictest government standards for security.
On the management front, Red Hat announced what it calls a Provisioning Module for its Red Hat Network patch updating service. The software will let Red Hat Linux customers manage and deploy software to a large network of Red Hat machines. The software could help users automate patch management, operating system upgrades and other management tasks, the company says.
With security on the minds of many show-goers, one Linux expert at LinuxWorld said companies need to incorporate rigid security auditing and management procedures if they are considering Linux.
“Getting a system to run well and getting it to run securely takes the same kind of attention,” says Jay Beale, lead developer for the Bastille Linux Project, which maintains an open source security, auditing and lock-down tool for Linux systems. “Auditing a Linux system deployment and making sure the auditor isn’t the same person who set up the system – those kinds of things are necessary to ensure against problems.”
While there has been increased publicity over Linux vulnerabilities – such as Linux-based worms and attack vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel – it doesn’t mean Linux has become more dangerous to use, Beale says.
“Linux isn’t more vulnerable now than it was before,” he says. “It’s just that no one really started paying attention to Linux security until people started getting hacked . . . It’s just a matter of being more vigilant now.”
