Interview: New Linux focus at IGS, Ralph Martino Introduces Benoit Degreve
August 2002
IBM Global Services (IGS) has a newly created global Linux organization, and has named Benoit Degreve the new Global Linux Services Executive to head it up. In this interview, Ralph Martino, IBM VP of Strategy & Marketing for IGS introduces Benoit. We ask him about IGS Linux offerings, and the Linux impact of the PricewaterhouseCoopers' Consulting (PwCC) acquisition. We also asked him what he sees for Linux and IGS going forward. Here's what he had to say.
Ralph I understand there are some recent developments within IGS to increase the focus on Linux?
Ralph: Yes, we have made organizational changes that will increase the scope of Linux inside IGS. We have created a global Linux organization that spans all of our line of businesses, pulling together the best of Linux across all of Global Services into a single marketing and delivery team. What this offers the customer is a unified group of Linux-focused professionals who can consult with them to address issues from strategy to solutions to infrastructure. I am pleased into introduce Benoit Degreve to lead this initiative on a worldwide basis. Benoit was formerly a member of the Strategy & Marketing team in Europe in charge of Special Projects, and in his new role he will head up a new IGS Linux project office to drive IBM Linux sales and IBM Linux marketing initiatives.
Thanks Ralph. Benoit, first of all, welcome.
Benoit: Thank you very much, I'm very happy to be here.
Why the increased focus on Linux right now?
Benoit: Linux, and the open source philosophy that it embodies, have always been a great idea. That's why IBM has been such a strong supporter of Linux as an alternative to proprietary systems. What's different now is that Linux is really maturing from its grassroots heritage to being a powerful new approach for enterprise systems. When you start to see respected companies as Air New Zealand and Sherwin Williams using Linux for business-critical functions, countries such as Germany, the UK and China making broad Linux policy statements, and leading ISVs such as SAP, J. D Edwards and PeopleSoft investing in Linux, you know it's something to be taken seriously. And IBM Global Services wants to be right there to help, and in doing so to continue to grow as the leader in Linux consulting and services.
Could you give us a brief survey of what IBM Global Services can do to help customers with Linux?
Benoit: I'd be glad to. The value IGS provides Linux is being at the intersection of business and technology -- in other words, to work with customers to understand their business challenges, evaluate how a Linux-based approach can help them, then architect and implement the solution. Its really taking Linux beyond the desktop to the back office, the plant floor, the retail outlet, and so on -- with business impacts that are felt all the way to the company's board room.
To provide that service and support, IGS has developed several Linux offerings. One of the most straightforward and widely deployed service offerings for IGS is our 800 number Linux support for Linux, IBM middleware and some selected applications. If there a question or a problem, an IBM expert is just a call away worldwide, 24/7. If customers prefer to improve the Linux skills of their in-house staff, IBM Learning Services offers a wide Linux curriculum for both developers and system administrators. Courses are available supporting both LPI and RHCE certifications through both classroom and e-learning courses.
That sounds great as a starting point for organizations just getting up-to-speed with Linux. How are we able to help companies or government entities with more sophisticated requirements?
Benoit: You've hit on a very important point -- as I mentioned earlier, what's really stoking the growth of Linux right now is its move into the enterprise. Increasingly, our customers want their solutions provided for them, in full or in part, and we have a wide range of Linux offerings to meet their needs as well. I'll try to touch on a few.
One important practice at IGS is Linux cluster support. High-Performance Clusters (HPCs) have been called the "poor man's supercomputer" because they leverage commercial workstation technology for compute-intensive applications, but cost much less to deploy than parallel supercomputers. IBM Global Services can help customers determine an optimal configuration and then implement the HPC using xSeries nodes, OEM networking components, and Open Source software.
But we don't stop there: For key industries, we are developing specific, leading-edge solutions that extend the cluster technology to provide vertical-specific solutions that address critical business requirements. The Petroleum industry is one example that I can tell you about. If you think about the computational requirements of modeling for oil exploration, in seismic simulation, it's really quite mind-boggling. But by combining IBM's inside knowledge of the industry with the power of Linux High-Performance clusters, the result is solutions that can reduce computational time from hours to minutes, and really revolutionize the speed with which companies can complete activities such as oil trading.
Server consolidation on Linux is another IBM strength, and the problem of sprawling, high latency PC networks and their associated high maintenance and licensing costs have created strong demand for alternatives.
We can also provide skilled specialists to help customers plan, install, customize, configure and test Linux middleware like DB2, DB2EEE, WebSphere Application Server, MQSeries Client, WebSphere Transcoding Publisher - in fact we have a variety of middleware enablement services support Linux on either the Intel platform or the eServer zSeries platform. If customers have needs in any of these areas, they should give us a call.
Finally, we are very excited about our new IBM e-business on demand service we call Linux Virtual Services. Instead of buying, installing and administering physical Web, database and application servers, customers can now tap into "virtual servers" on IBM zSeries mainframes secure, e-business hosting centers and pay only for the computing power, storage, network and management they require. Anyone who has ever gone through this process can appreciate how revolutionary that is.
These are a few of our Linux offerings, but if a customer has any Linux need they'd like to discuss, they should give is a call to see if we can accommodate their needs.
Could you tell us about some recent Linux customer successes you've had?
Benoit: It's hard to know where to begin, since there are such a wide range of exciting uses for Linux that we're helping our customer move forward. But I'll mention a few that I think are representative of some of the hot new areas in Linux. In enterprise applications for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), for example, we helped I Viaggi del Ventaglio build a solution that draws from a DB2 Universal Database for Linux data warehouse running on two IBM eServer xSeries 350 servers. We also recently announced a Linux-based CRM solution for mid-sized banks in alliance with J. D. Edwards.
In the area of clustering, Rigel Pharmaceuticals, who is studying new small-molecule drugs to treat cancer and immunologic and infectious diseases, recently worked with us to implement a pre-built cluster of Linux servers: 16 xSeries 330 servers and one xSeries 340 server running Red Hat Linux. Now, Rigel has an environment that is faster, more robust, scalable, and easier to manage.
We also helped the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), build cost-effective, high-performance computing infrastructure consisting of a preassembled Red Hat Linux V7.2 cluster of 64 xSeries 330 compute nodes for data processing and analysis, two xSeries 330 head nodes and one xSeries 340 management node.
And we helped Lotto.com, an Internet gaming company consolidate servers onto a single, logically partitioned eServer pSeries 690 server running Linux, which both increased performance and lowered their total cost of ownership.
There are several more we could mention, but these are representative of several key application domains that your readers may recognize. If a customer has a Linux need, whether focused on cost-cutting or a path-breaking competitive innovation, they should contact us to discuss ways we can solve their problems and meet their needs.
IBM recently announced the proposed acquisition and addition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting to IBM Global Services. What would this mean to IBM Global Services' Linux capabilities?
Benoit: The PwC Consulting acquisition would open up several opportunities for us on the Linux platform. PwCC would brings consulting expertise and implementation capabilities tailored to markets including financial services, energy, pharmaceuticals and the retail sector -- all areas that are discovering new uses for Linux. Combined with their standing as a leader in packages such as SAP, Siebel and PeopleSoft, we think it's a combination that would bring unequalled business benefit and value to our customers.
What do you see happening in the near future for IBM Global Services and Linux?
Benoit: There are two critical emerging opportunity areas that we are focusing on: Enterprise and Industry Applications, and On-demand Services. I've already talked about a number of our enterprise solution successes, so what I'll focus on here is Linux Virtual Services which, as an IBM e-business on demand service represents the next stage in computing for us. It's and offering in which applications, infrastructure and business processes are all delivered on demand over the network much like a utility. And while we think that e-business on Demand represents the long-term computing vision, it's real -- it's here today, and customers are benefiting from it already.
Just as you and I can have water and electricity without digging a well or installing a generator; compute, storage and network resources... and complete solutions for eBusiness... are becoming seamlessly available in a "placeless" environment as well. It's beginning to matter less and less that your organizations' compute resources are hosted in-house. In fact, I think the day is coming when managing these information assets in-house will seem inelegant and passe, when compared to the efficiency and flexibility the utility model offers.
All in all, that's part of the vision IBM has for Grid computing, for Linux and for the self-healing technologies of Project eLiza. At the end of the day, Grid will make IT resources ubiquitous, Linux promises to provide a common platform, and the self-healing technologies of eLiza will continue to make the system more and more robust. That's what I think the future holds. And as this story continues to unfold, IBM Global Services will be there to help customers understand, integrate, leverage and deploy these technologies to for eBusiness. That's what we do.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
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