Developers are key to IBM's Linux strategy
June 2002
We recently spent time with Bob Timpson, General Manager of IBM Developer Relations, who shared his views on the Linux market, IBM's opportunity, and the support IBM is providing to our ISV Business Partners and the growing population of Linux developers. Here's what he had to say.
Question: Linux has moved into the mainstream in the last twelve months. What is the outlook going forward?
Timpson: Only a few years ago, Linux was mostly thought of as a university research project. But Linux has filled out as a robust, scalable, and surprisingly secure operating system. So not surprisingly, Linux is a matter of great business interest to the developers and ISVs that we work with. Developers know what the analysts have been saying for some time, that the Linux platform has moved into the mainstream.
It's already being used by a third of our customers, and IDC is projecting that one third of server placements this year will be directly tied to Linux applications. As we look forward, all of the consultants (and it's validated by our own experience) say that Linux is the fastest growing operating system platform, with an industry potential of $12 billion by 2005. IBM can go after much of that, spread across services, servers, and software. By 2004, the majority of the IBM opportunity will be in software, so it's very important that we make our Linux software investments now... to get where the marketplace will be.
Question: What are developers and ISVs saying about Linux, compared to some other more proprietary implementations now in the marketplace?
Timpson: Integration is the largest single challenge that ISVs face. We're seeing it in every industry. The world of information technology is a complicated place; from Solaris, to HP, to UNIX, to Microsoft, to Unisys, to various IBM platforms and more. And we see virtually none of these platforms disappearing in the short term.
So ISVs are recognizing that open standards software is the best way to provide solutions that work across those platforms. Any implementation that assumes a single architecture and single set of interfaces will have limited success in a real-world IT setting. Even the smallest bit of software may get sold to a company, installed in some department somewhere, and then suddenly get included in a worldwide rollout across multiple platforms.
Then they say, "Oh, gee, how does this interface with these other applications? Can it run on that operating system they have at corporate? Can we migrate our partners in Tulsa? Or Taiwan?" We see that in our Solution Partnership Centers every day, and it happens to the small companies as well as the large ones.
That’s why Linux and open source have become popular with ISVs and customers, and why IBM continues to support the open source movement with significant investments... investments like our $40 million contribution of key software to the Eclipse Project, which has been described as "Apache for developer tools." It's all about giving ISVs and their end users the ability to integrate.
Question: So ISVs have been moving more and more to Linux. But how does IBM make money with a free operating system?
Timpson: What's exciting from IBM's perspective is that though Linux is essentially free and widely available, it's driving strong demand for services, middleware, and servers. So IBM has hitched its wagon to Linux. We've adopted it across the board, added substantial value, and created a value net. The rest is being taken care of by the market forces generated by Linux's wide phenomenal popularity and wide availability.
Developers and ISVs have learned they can write their Linux applications once, and then run them on many on many different platforms... so the application stack is expanding, which expands the Linux market even more, and, again, pulls us along... our eServers, our middleware, our services, and our partners products and services, and their partners and so on.
To drive this opportunity forward, we are also enriching the Linux ecosystem by making open source code contributions and investing in industry enablement. IBM's Linux Technology Center increases the robustness and scalability of the Linux platform. IBM's Linux Testing Lab for Telecom Services Providers helps ISVs create enhanced applications for Next Generation Networks running on Linux. The Open Source Developer Lab (OSDL), which we helped establish and continue to support, helps ISVs and resellers to use Linux in the telecommunications industry. And of course there's our support for Apache, and the open source contributions we made to the Eclipse Project, which I mentioned above.
The open source community is very involved in all these initiatives, and others we are working on. In fact, IBM's collaboration with the community and our commitment to open standards has effectively been institutionalized here. It's part of everything we do. That's what distinguishes us from competitors.
So we make money with Linux the same way that we make it every place else with our customers: in services, software, servers, as well as financing, education, and other offerings. In the total cost of a solution, the operating system is a relatively small part, compared to the services, software and server opportunities.
Question: How is IBM helping ISVs and business partners be successful with Linux?
Timpson: There are several things ISVs like about working with IBM when it comes to Linux.
IBM has the broadest collection Linux tuned platforms and Linux offerings in the industry. We have positioned our eServers, our IBM middleware and IBM Global Services to engage the market with Linux and meet almost any customer need.
We have a large and rapidly growing suite of Linux offerings for developers and ISVs, whether they’re small start-ups or billion-dollar companies like SAP. IBM/developerWorks, our free developer resource, offers developers expert-hosted Linux tips, tutorials, code and visibility into IBM open source projects across the company. We’re also offering education; some is free and available over the Web. There's our "Ready, Set, Linux -Go!" program, which educates partners on the Linux opportunity and how to get started partnering with IBM and our "You Pass, We Pay" education initiative which provides Linux education reimbursement for qualifying partners.
We also provide Linux assistance for porting and enablement. Aside from the centers mentioned above, Developer Relations has ten Solution Partnership Centers (SPCs) around the globe to assist ISVs in porting and tuning applications on Linux... there are other IBM centers that can assist with application porting and tuning as well.
And there's IBM's go-to-market sales support. Once ISVs have ported their applications to Linux, we are in a position to make them successful in the marketplace with unmatched world-wide sales, marketing, and the support of over 150,000 services professionals worldwide.
The results of those programs speak for themselves. To date, we have more than 2,800 Linux applications available in our Global Solutions Directory. The IBM/developerWorks Linux Zone and Open Source Projects page are generating a million page views a month, up by a factor of three over last year. And the DeveloperToolbox, an offering of more than Linux 1,000 tools and Linux content which generated over 3,000 downloads in the first quarter of this year.
Whether it’s porting, go-to-market assistance, education or developer resources, developers and our ISV partners have come to appreciate that IBM has Linux support abilities that go far beyond our hardware and software products. Linux is everywhere now, but ISVs are learning that if you partner with IBM, Linux can make you money.
Question: If I were a developer interested in working with IBM, what would I need to do?
Timpson: For individual developers, the first place to start is the developerWorks site where they can leverage its broad collection of Linux and open source information, tools and resources. For companies and ISVs who want to know more about our programs, there's the PartnerWorld for Developers Web site.
Question: Do you have any final thoughts on Linux?
Timpson: Yes, I’d just like to say that the developer and ISV teams inside IBM, like the rest of IBM, are focused and committed to helping customers and developers with their Linux efforts. If you care about being able to develop and deploy applications to the widest possible audience, the market opportunity is in Linux. IBM is uniquely positioned to capture that opportunity, and we intend to keep driving our leadership in this space.
Question: Thanks Bob, for taking the time to talk to us.
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