Linux Technology Center

The Linux Technology Center (LTC) is IBM's Linux open source development team.

History of the LTC

To accelerate Linux enterprise enablement in the industry, IBM formed the Linux Technology Center in 1999. Initially, the LTC was a handful of a Linux developers contributing to the Linux open source community. Quickly the LTC became a worldwide organization across all geographies, participating in over a hundred open source projects, and collaborating with IBM's two strategic Linux distribution partners, Red Hat and Novell. The LTC's contributions have played a significant part in Linux's evolution from edge-of-network usage to the full enterprise-level operating system it is today. LTC technical contributions have enabled customers to run enterprise Linux in all areas of computing. IBM customers use Linux for business critical applications, databases, web serving, infrastructure, and development on IBM System x, Power, System z, and SWG middleware.

For the last few years, IBM has been one of the largest contributors to Linux community projects, and we continue to work to advance Linux even further. The LTC's mission is fourfold: make Linux better, expand Linux reach, enable IBM products, and collaborate with customers.

Make Linux better

IBM developers work directly as peers in the Linux open source community with the goal of making Linux better. Our software engineers participate in existing open source projects to help them achieve the community's goals. IBM engineers also develop and contribute to new technology to advance Linux such as Cell, Realtime, Serviceability (Kdump, SystemTap), Virtualization (Xen, KVM) and exploitation of new hardware functions on IBM platforms. Recent growth areas are virtualization, energy efficiency and management, containers, web serving, service oriented architectures, and virtual worlds.

The LTC drives customer requirements into the open source community. IBM contributes code for new and existing functionality, reviews code submissions, takes part in community discussions, tests new kernel builds, and develops test tools to improve Linux. Our teams are working collectively to deliver higher standards for Linux.

As an active member in the Linux community the LTC participates in a number of community events such as the Linux Kernel Developers' Summit, Ottawa Linux Symposium, Linux Foundation Summit, and Linux World Expo. IBM sponsored the April 2008 Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in Austin, Texas where over 200 Linux community and industry leaders met to discuss focus areas such as Green Linux, File systems, Virtualization, Performance / Scalability, IPv6, and Security.

Expand Linux reach

In addition to contributing direct code development resources, IBM participates in other projects related to the Linux community, including: Linux documentation, Linux Standard Base, Linux test tooling and methodology, and development tools.

Enable IBM products

IBM product teams identify customer requirements and drive these enhancements through the LTC to the community. In parallel to driving Linux OS requirements, the LTC collaborates with the IBM product teams to optimize their products for Linux production environments. Focus areas are IBM system management, storage, and device driver update utilities. LTC teams partner with IBM Software Group (SWG) brands to optimize IBM middleware for Linux. The LTC and IBM SWG are working to deliver enhanced Linux stack solutions. Over 200 of IBM's software products support IBM Systems lines, in grids and clusters, with Linux.

Collaborate with customers

The LTC also serves as a source of Linux expertise for other parts of IBM and our customers. The LTC's Advanced Linux Response Team (ALRT) team manages customer engagements for Linux technology previews, Linux deployment and optimization, and IT simplification. ALRT also delivers proof of concepts and manages customized solutions developed by the LTC. Recent customer collaborations with the LTC produced the Scale Out File System (SOFS) offering and Realtime for Raytheon.

IBM Collaboration with Linux Distribution Partners

The LTC and IBM brands work closely with our Linux Distribution Partners to ensure support and interoperability of IBM middleware and hardware. IBM develops customer requirements, gains community acceptance, and performs extensive testing prior to release. Through our Linux distribution partnerships, IBM delivers solutions which provide cross-platform functionality, performance, reliability, and maintenance delivery.

IBM's Involvement with Linux Community Organizations

IBM is very active in Linux community organizations as well, including the Linux Foundation, the Free Standards Group, the Linux Standard Base, the Free Software Foundation, the Linux Kernel Summit, the Ottawa Linux Symposium, and many more.

Together, IBM hardware brands, middleware teams, and the LTC give IBM unmatched capability. We're actively contributing resources to accelerate the fulfillment of our customers' requirements and influencing the direction of technology. By working with the community in areas of interest to many, IBM's skilled engineers, hardware resources, and financial resources have played and continue to play a significant role in improving Linux and the entire open source ecosystem. We hope you find these pages of interest and we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Thank you

Daniel Frye
Vice President, Open Systems Development