John Vitkus helps unveil the IBM Linux Center of Competency
July 2002
In June IBM announced the new IBM Linux Center of Competency (LCoC) located on Madison Avenue, New York City. John Vitkus, IBM’s WW Program Director for Linux in the Financial Services Sector (FSS) was instrumental in putting the center together. We recently asked John about the reasons IBM set up the center, and how financial customers could use it to their advantage. Here's what he had to say.
Question: Why did IBM decide to open a Linux Center of Competency in the center of New York City?
Vitkus: We did this for a very simple reason. We've identified Wall Street and the financial services sector as a very, very strong advocate for Linux. They've already involved themselves by deploying it in pilots and in production, in many cases. They're recognizing the value of Linux, and beginning to see it as a viable alternative to some of the proprietary operating systems that they have installed.
Question: The financial sector is an area that traditionally has been dominated by high-end UNIX systems. Why does IBM think these end users should be looking at Linux, and why choose IBM?
Vitkus: Linux is an operating system that's very similar to UNIX®, and this simplifies porting and training. It's very cost effective, yet very flexible. It runs on many hardware platforms, so applications may be more easily moved from hardware to hardware, and from vendor to vendor. And it leverages open source applications like Samba to integrate with heterogeneous environments, something that's becoming increasingly important to many of our customers.
Financial services should choose IBM for their Linux partner because IBM has been leading the charge with Linux in the industry, not only from a commercial point of view, but from a community point of view. We're giving back to the community through the Linux Technology Center to enhance Linux functionality for everyone. But we're also leveraging their deep Linux technical expertise to enhance IBM hardware, IBM middleware, and to help our IBM partners produce solutions for Linux.
In short, IBM provides a complete Linux package: hardware, middleware, solutions, storage, support and services. That's why businesses with financial services requirements should be talking to us. That's why they are in fact talking to us.
Question: What are some of the Linux-based financial solutions the customers can expect to see at work at the Linux Center of Competency right now?
Vitkus: Customers will be able to see infrastructure applications such as Web serving with Apache, messaging with Sendmail, and file and print with Samba. We'll show how to roll all these up onto a single platform through server consolidation. Or integrate them into heterogeneous environments using virtualization ... running multiple instances of operating systems on one eServer.
But most importantly, what we'll be showing at the center is the ISV uptick in the financial market space. Intelligent Markets, for example, whose trade execution application is now running on Intel Linux; or the AXIOM Software Laboratories solution to handle risk management across the enterprise.
Question: IBM also has an extensive portfolio of Linux-enabled storage available to financial customers. Why is storage important to customers, and why should they choose IBM for their storage solutions?
Vitkus: Storage is the currency of the digital economy, and nowhere is this more important than on Wall Street. You can't work without data; data needs to be protected, saved, made resilient against disasters, and available when you need it. Storage with Linux is no different. It is a key element of the infrastructure decision. can we succeed together by selling Linux-based solutions."
Customers want the same benefits of openness, reliability, flexibility they have when deploying Linux to be present in the storage they attach to. IBM not only has the broadest storage portfolio in the industry, but the most comprehensive roadmap for supporting Linux across its many offerings... hardware, software and services. Customers can talk to IBM sales reps for more information about "attachment, enablement and exploitation,” our three levels of Linux storage integration offerings.
Question: Suppose I have an important announced financial application running on another platform, or perhaps a Java™ application that I'd like to test on Linux. What should I do?
Vitkus: We're going to have the capability to support clients who are interested in doing proof of concepts. So if there is some interest in the portability of an app that runs today on UNIX or Java for example, they'll be able to try it out on our systems. That includes the Intel-based xSeries, the zSeries mainframe, or the pSeries. We'll be able to prove the application against any of these servers.
Question: Is there anything else that you'd like to add about the Linux Center of Competency?
Vitkus: I think the Center of Competency is an example of a new kind of thinking inside IBM. We've had demonstration centers that focus on eBusiness or products in the past. But this center is dedicated to serve Wall Street. And it is not only directed to our large enterprise clients, but to the larger financial community who today may be using proprietary platforms and may not quite understand the advantages of the Linux environment. The LCoC will help us better understand our customers, and will help our customers better understand the value of Linux, and the confidence that partnering with IBM can provide.
Question: John, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
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