| Computer Associates' Open Innovation Strategy takes Linux to enterprise |
(Sep. 22, 2003)
Computer Associates (CA) has no doubts about open source Linux. In fact, the company has been involved with Linux as a founding member of OSDL, is active in a number of organizations to foster Linux acceptance, and CA uses Linux internally.
Sam Greenblatt, SVP and Chief Architect, Linux Technology Group, says that his company has adopted an ecosystem that is in tune with the realities of migrating to Linux for customers and also keeps CA in step with the open source community to help develop future technologies. DesktopLinux.com caught up with Greenblatt to learn why the enterprise is embracing Linux in large numbers. He shares some of the successful deployments the company has been involved with and shares results of CA's own survey that demonstrates reliability and performance are key factor for customers, ahead of TCO. Greenblatt also discusses CA's commitment to Linux and product strategy . . .
Q: Computer Associates (CA) has been involved in Linux solutions for many years and clearly enjoys early adopter status in offering the benefits of Linux to your customers. Briefly, for those who are not familiar what are some key historical facts that newer end users or enterprises need to know about CA?
CA has indeed been working hard to provide its enterprise clients with business enabling infrastructure management since the early days of Linux. What is hugely successful for CA's customers and CA, is our adoption of what we call the Open Innovation Model. This model is a triangle, comprised of the Open Source Community, the customer, and CA - in which innovation can come from any of these three sources, and then be incorporated into enhancing CA's existing products and helping define future solutions. This model helps us understand Linux adoption among our customers and prospects, as well as keeping us in touch with the open source community. No single company can generate all the ideas and innovations necessary to address technology evolution and adoption. Every technology goes through replacement and upgrade cycles. As older solutions are becoming commodities, CA is creating new technologies that meet the refined needs of customers. Working with new and existing customers and the open source community (partners, independent coders, and '.orgs'), CA helps to ensure that Linux scales, integrates and is secure enough to run business critical applications.
Q: CA is partnered with all the major Linux players and is a founder of OSDL. With so many unique offerings, and support, what efforts are you involved in to support and promote generic Linux? How about standards efforts?
Even though there are so many different players, the Linux community is a unique entity. CA works closely with the Linux community and partners such as Oracle, Red Hat, SuSE Linux, Red Flag, Conectiva and TurboLinux. CA is delivering, deploying and promoting products to support the use of Linux.
In addition to being a founding member of OSDL, CA is active with the Embedded Linux Consortium, the Open Group and EMBLIX.
Q: What is the SINGLE greatest reason an enterprise should switch to Linux now?
To get to On Demand Computing. Linux On Demand creates a true virtual environment enabling scalable processing power, parallel operations, clustered reliability, load balancing and increased availability on everything from the smallest devices to the largest mainframes. This virtual environment, with more modular component development, provides the ultimate in flexibility and mission-critical business reliability. Linux On Demand leverages horizontal and vertical scaling, and platform independence to deliver the next generation of applications and databases.
How have customers been using Linux in their businesses over the past year? What are CA's offerings?
In the last year, the adoption of Linux has seen a staggering growth; proving to be the right fit for enterprises and governments looking to save money and lower TCO, migrate to new servers, and/or make IT systems more secure. Clients have started using it on the mainframe for file- & print server consolidation and as a platform of choice for data warehousing. On the distributed platform, it has been accepted as a more economical way to run existing and new applications. Particular vertical markets experiencing high acceptance of Linux are: finance, retail, transportation, communication, and government.
CA's Linux solutions for the mainframe, servers and the desktop include network and systems management, storage and security management, portal and business intelligence, and application life cycle management. What our customers appreciate is that our products are delivered as a complete package, so they get everything they need for their enterprise deployment whether it's for a mainframe, a server, a workstation, database, etc.
Q: What are the metrics and key decision factors for making the determination to use Linux in the enterprise?
According to our clients, the 6 most important reasons to look at Linux as an alternative are:- Reliability
- Acquisition Cost
- Performance
- Scalability
- Security
- TCO
Some of these may not be a surprise (acquisition cost), but reliability, performance and scalability are key reasons for our clients to consider Linux. The metrics are not always easy to identify since they vary from client to client. Some mainframe clients run Linux to make better use of existing (unused) mainframe cycles, others have chosen to implement Linux as an LDAP Server because of the better performance and reliability.
Q: Can you talk about some key areas in which significant costs are being reduced?
People will always be looking for better ways to run their IT. This is a standard cost of doing business. ROI for Linux is real, but the value of Linux goes beyond cost, and looks to what efficiencies have been gained. For example, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is able to go beyond the limits of its prior technology at a much more reasonable cost, shortening the processing time for weather forecasting with Linux.
Q: What about the feedback so far from IT managers and CIOs on any evaluation sites or programs that are currently going on. What do they like? What do they seem to be struggling with?
A recent survey concludes that these are the top three challenges that people see:- The due diligence process is still unproven (support models are still evolving).
- The cost of change may be higher than expected (Linux is usually not free).
- The uncertainty about the level of support that one can expect.
CA's own survey shows that reliability and performance is more important than TCO. With CA's Linux solutions, Wisconsin Physicians Service was able to resolve all of these issues.
CA feels that all three challenges can be overcome by carefully choosing the partners that you work with and clearly defining the needs and expected outcomes of the particular business system implementation.
Q: How about the move to Linux itself? What are customers reporting is the training associated with the move and how are employees finding the transition?
For companies already working with Unix, the move to Linux is relatively easy. For mainframe clients, the move is a bit more complicated, but our experience is that most mainframe people can make the switch fairly quickly. For those with a Wintel background, the move to Linux will be more demanding. The current level of Linux trainings offered is of very high standard and this ensures that almost anyone can be up to speed in less than 3 weeks. What helps enormously is the availability of cross-platform management solutions like the ones CA offers. Since the interface is identical to that of the same product on other platforms only minimal training is required (if any).
Q: How do you feel about the rate of application offerings becoming available that are Linux-compatible? How can it be stimulated further, or is it emerging as expected?
What will help stimulate the rate of application offerings is support for application generators like CA Advantage Gen and Advantage Plex to generate code that can easily be ported to the Linux platform.
Q: Do you think a killer app would help propel Linux on the corporate desktop? What could that be?
Probably a compatible environment that would better enable the rehosting of Visual Basic and other applications.
Q: Other countries have benefited from government initiatives, legislation, and programs that have been supportive of open source Linux. This has not been as successful in the US. Currently, are you seeing more Linux adoption in government contracts, systems and in agencies?
We are seeing traction in the government space. A recent study by Mitre shows over two hundred Linux applications are being used in the DoD alone. I think 2004 will see continued growth in the adoption in the financial and government verticals around the world including the U.S.
Q: The evolution of Linux in the enterprise is happening very quickly. What is the demand for Linux today? How has that demand changed over the past 6 months? What do you anticipate happening over the next 6 months?
I have to say we are in sync with the analyst expectations of Linux growing at 27.2 % compounded growth rate year on year and it continues to gain momentum.
Q: If I am an IT Manager, what do I need to know about maintaining Linux? What about certification? What kinds of costs should I prepare for during the switch? After? How do I sell making a change to my boss?
Linux and the software that runs on Linux by nature is very open. Most ISV's have made sure that their software has all the cross platform functionality needed to integrate with existing systems. Maintenance is usually very similar to any other platform. What we are seeing at customer implementations is that Linux and Linux applications can be easily integrated with existing applications, databases and business processes. In fact, a typical Linux installation we see includes both existing legacy systems with newly-partitioned Linux images and distributed Intel-based Linux systems. With respect to selling a change to your boss, this will vary from customer to customer and business need to business need. Linux should always be considered as a viable platform. Partnering with a reliable vendor is critical. At CA we work with our customers to help identify the most productive areas to utilize Linux.
Q: How is CA extending the reach of the Linux server to the desktop?
We are enabling our products such as Unicenter Asset Management, Unicenter Software Delivery and eTrust Antivirus to deploy, configure, protect and extend the reach of the Linux server to the desktop.
Q: Can you share some details on the typical deployment you are currently seeing? Size? Is the enterprise seeking to move from UNIX or Microsoft? Looking to maintain some Linux, some MS simultaneously? Are you finding bridge technologies, such as CrossOver Office or Win4Lin, necessary to companies using a combined Windows/Linux environment?
There really is no 'typical' technical deployment. Companies nowadays are looking for practical solutions for day-to-day problems.
Most of them now also take Linux into consideration when looking for solutions.
An example is:
Mainframe clients implementing Linux on the mainframe to bring their C/S applications closer to their Legacy data. Linux also allows them to scale more efficiently when they are suddenly confronted with a request for more processing power (End Of Month or End Of Quarter processing).
Depending on the customer's individual needs, customers are utilizing bridge technologies like CrossOver Office and Win3Lin a combined Windows/Linux environment.
Unix clients are moving to Linux on Intel to leverage the cost effectiveness in running applications or processes. Blade technology gives them the needed scalability, without the cost normally associated with Large Unix systems.
Wintel server-based solutions are also being replaced by Linux technology because of cost-effectiveness, reliability and scalability.
In all cases, our clients almost never start with Linux for experimental reasons. They have a business issue and if it can be resolved in a more flexible, reliable and cheaper way by using Linux, they are no longer reluctant to make that choice.
Q: We keep hearing the Linux desktop will 'soon' be a reality and is 'almost' there time and again. The reality is that the Linux desktop is there for most end users today, can you give us some examples?
Certainly we are seeing momentum in this space, with browser and java-based applications being readily available. CA is working with insurance companies that are using the Linux desktop today.
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