linux - FTP Directory Listing - IBM

Helping Solve Nature’sMysteries n 46Iowa State University turns to Linux toresearch genomes. By Shirley S. Savage

A Seamless Enterprise n 50Linux is a good fit with Success Apparel’sbusiness goals. By James Mathewson

Past, Present and Future n 54Three executives discuss the whys andwherefores of IBM’s approach to opensource beyond Linux. By Jim Utsler

Creating a Community n 59Palm Beach Community College learnedthat consolidation and virtualization canresult in more than just lower costs.By Jim Utsler

DepartmentsExecutive Viewpoint n 8Sharing in the Success of Open Source

Industry Watch n 10IBM’s Migration Factory Eases Transitions

Trends n 12Linux Hits the Mainstream

Linux Line n 63Customers Discuss Benefits of Open Source

Parting Thoughts n 64Conquering Open-Source Fears

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There’s a new guide for systems administrators.Download a free technical reference for migrationfrom Solaris to Linux technology-based systems at www.ibm.com/linux.

4 A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 L I N U X E X E C U T I V E R E P O R T w w w . i b m . c o m / l i n u x

© Copyright 2006 by International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. This magazine could contain technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Also, illustrationscontained herein may show prototype equipment. Your system configuration may differ slightly. This magazine contains small programs that are furnished by IBM assimple examples to provide an illustration. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. IBM, therefore, cannot guarantee or imply reliability,serviceability, or function of these programs. All programs contained herein are provided to you “AS IS.” IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESSFOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. All rights reserved.

All customer examples cited represent the results achieved by some customers who use IBM products. Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics willvary depending on individual customer configurations and conditions. Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the products' suppliers. Questions ontheir capabilities should be addressed with the suppliers.

All statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

The following are trademarks (marked with an *) of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.A complete list of IBM Trademarks is available online (www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml).

Java and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc., in the United States and other countries. Microsoft, Windows and Windows NTare trademarks of Microsoft Corp., in the United States and other countries. Intel, MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corp. in the United States andother countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. SET is a trademark owned by SET Secure ElectronicTransaction LLC. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both. Other company, product and service names may betrademarks or service marks of others.

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The Linux Executive Report from IBM is published by the International Business Machines Corporation, Route 100, Somers, NY 10589. The articles in thismagazine represent the views of the authors and are not necessarily those of IBM.

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EDITORIAL

FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR & PUBLISHER Barry R. Mi t te lman

Sen ior Market ing Manager, Compet i t i ve Market ing Lead Wor ldw ide L inux & Open Source , IBM Corporat ion

([email protected])

ASSOCIATE EDITORSJeff Cork

Evelyn HooverCaroline Joyce

Doug Rock

WRITERSAaron Dalton

Elliot KingKristin Lewotsky

James MathewsonJoe McKendrickMaureen Nevin

Shirley S. Savage Neil TardyJim Utsler

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This article is posted with permission from Linux Executive Report.

Sharing in the Success of Open Source


What makes Linux*so influential? Is it thefact that it’s sent a considerable shock wave through thecomputer industry? Is it because it’s helped facilitate thecollaboration of programmers, engineers, scientists andorganizations across the planet? Does it have anything to dowith helping less-developed nations facilitate access into theglobal marketplace?

All of these facts contribute to the positive influence ofLinux. However, the greatest influence of Linux may be thatit validated the powerful philosophy and business model ofusing open-source technology to more efficiently deliver ashared, industry-wide open standard to customers. Becauseof the market success Linux has achieved, scores of othertechnologies that are “open source beyond Linux” have cred-ibility and success as a way to implement or accelerate othershared industry-wide open standards. The same repeatablemodel has fueled the success of technologies such as Eclipse,several significant Apache projects and the Aperi project(read more about these topics beginning on page 54).

In fact, companies that innovate on top of open standardsare advantaged because resources are freed up for higher-value work and because market opportunities expand as thestandards proliferate. And customers win because vendorswho use open source to more efficiently deliver implementa-tions of those open standards can use the freed-up resourcesto deliver more value-add to customers on top of the stan-dard. Customers like open standards, as they want simplicityand common standards help to simplify multivendor IT envi-ronments. Everyone wins in an environment that uses opensource to share implementations of open-technology stan-dards. The success of Linux has been a critical catalyst inmaking that idea a reality.

All of the Linux and open source-related attributes listedabove have measurable business benefits. One attribute thatshouldn’t be overlooked, however, is flexibility. Companies

that have adopted Linux as their operating system of choiceare often doing so because of its flexibility. With Linux, anorganization’s product development cycle is no longershackled to the development schedules of proprietary soft-ware companies. Mark VandenBrink, senior director andchief platform architect for Motorola Mobile Devicesexplains in a quote fromthis issue’s Trends column:

“We went with Linuxbecause it provides a rate ofinnovation we found com-pelling,” VandenBrink says.“When we looked at Linux,we saw the ability to pushthings strategically fasteralong a certain path, withouthaving to wait on, or be gatedby, somebody else’s releaseschedules. Linux provides away to rapidly innovate andget new features into a devicewith a lot more freedom.”

Linux and open-source initiatives provide individuals andorganizations a common and simplified technology foundationthat allows them the freedom and flexibility to build the solu-tions that best serve their business needs. You’ll find examplesof companies that have used this model to realize success inthis issue of the Linux Executive Report. All the best.

Scott HandyVice President Worldwide Linux and Open Source, IBM

EXECUTIVEVIEWPOINT


ONE CONSTANT IN IT manage-ment is change. Even if an application ismeeting its service levels today, it mayhave to be migrated to a new platformtomorrow. “There are a number of rea-sons why a customer would migrate,”says Kevin Galloway, technical servicesmanager for the IBM* Migration Factory,a part of the Application-managementServices group within IBM GlobalBusiness Services. These reasonscould be a particular hardwareplatform coming to the end of itslife, a company looking to con-solidate servers due to acquisitionand/or reduce IT cost, an enter-prise undertaking a periodic tech-nology refresh or simply choosing anew vendor.

Those factors are coming into play asmany organizations migrate their infra-structures from Sun MicrosystemsSolaris operating systems (OSs) toLinux* running on IBM hardware. Withsome Sun Microsystems computersreaching the end of their useful life,companies are moving to smaller sys-tems with fewer processors that offerthe same or higher amount of process-ing power. “That reduces licensing andoperating costs for them,” Gallowaynoted. Moreover, he added, power useand heat generation have emerged assignificant challenges in many data-center operations.

IBM’s Migration Factory has skills tocover various kinds of workloads. “Webreak them down into key components:infrastructure (e-mail, networking,Web),” says Galloway.

The Migration Factory’s primary objec-tive is to lower risk and drive down the

cost of migrating to an IBM platform.“We focus on understanding the business,technology and strategic aspects ofmigration. It’s not all about speeds andfeeds,” Galloway said. “There are technol-ogy issues, working risk factors to mini-mize the customers’ fears about risk.”

Working with the different IBMhardware brands, the Migration

Factory helps enterprises under-stand the resources, time

and support needed to com-plete a successful migration project.“We help them understand what goesinto a migration project,” Gallowaysaid. The IBM Migration Factory teamassists with the complete migrationprocess from initial planning to usingthe migrated technology in production.

With more than 20 years of experi-ence and more than 4,000 successfulmigrations completed, the MigrationFactory has developed a methodologyand set of best practices that serve tohelp ensure a project’s success. “One ofthe core parts of the methodology andone that helps mitigate the risk is theextent to which we introduce testinginto the migration process,” Gallowaysaid. IBM performs its own testing andencourages the customer to run theirown performance testing as part of theacceptance process. “We haven’t simplygone in and moved code over and thensaid to the customer that it’s their jobto get the application running,”

Galloway said. “When the migratedapplication fulfills the requirements ofthe IBM and customer-defined testing,customers see that they have a workingapplication on Linux.”

Migrating an application to the Linuxplatform is a team effort. The MigrationFactory connects customers to IBM’seducational offerings so enterprises canimprove their Linux administration anddevelopment skills. “A key aspect of

moving from one platform to another isunderstanding how to manage, operateand develop on the new platform,”Galloway said.

Since Linux is a fully supported OS,IBM offers ongoing support following amigration and provides customers withthe benefits of IBM’s close relationshipswith its Linux partners Novell and RedHat. “It is very much a team IBMeffort,” Galloway said. “We have exper-tise in our group and also have accessto other people at IBM who are support-ing, developing and enhancing theexisting open source code.”

According to Galloway, the number ofmigrations from Solaris to Linux ispicking up, with telecommunicationsand financial services industries leadingthe way. “They want to be at the leadingedge and that is driving acceptance,” hesaid. We have experienced an increasein the number of applications availableon Linux and increases in the numberof migrations to Linux as well, he said.

INDUSTRY WATCHTracking the open-source movement

Easing Transitions Inside IBM’s Migration Factory: Organizations choose Linux to replace Sunoperating systems BY ELLIOT KING


The Migration Factory’s primaryobjective is to lower risks and drivedown the costs of migrating to IBMplatforms from original platforms.


Of course, the Migration Factory han-dles more than Solaris to Linux migra-tions. “Linux is becoming a target fromWindows*, HP-UX, Tru 64, UNIX, VMSand Tandem as well,” Galloway said.“Workloads are moving from all of

those platforms to Linux.” All kinds ofIT users can benefit from the expertiseof IBM’s Migration Factory.

Elliot King is a professor at LoyolaCollege in Maryland where he specializes

in new communication technology. Elliothas written five books and several hundredarticles about the emergence and use ofnew computing and communication tech-nology. Elliot can be reached [email protected].

A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 L I N U X E X E C U T I V E R E P O R T w w w . i b m . c o m / l i n u x 11

IBM has just published a new guide,“Solaris to Linux* Migration: A Guidefor System Administrators”

(www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247186.html), which provides an easy-to-follow step-by-step guide for movingfrom Solaris 8 or 9 to Linux on any typeof vendor hardware platform.

From an operational point of view,Solaris and Linux are very similarenvironments.

However, as with any two operatingsystems (OSs), there are nuances anddistinctions of which administrators atmigrating enterprises need to be aware.Some key “pain points” that the guidehelps alleviate include the following:

Software-package management:The Solaris package format is based onthe System V Interface Definition forApplication Binary Interface (ABI) andhas tools for managing these packages.Red Hat and Novell SUSE Linux bothuse the Red Hat Package Manager(RPM), which includes features for pack-age management such as dependencyand signature checking and otheradvanced options.

Patch management: The patch man-agement process in Solaris requires theinstallation of the base version packagefirst, followed by all the associatedpatches. Linux should be a welcomedtransition for administrators doing patchmanagement. Instead of creatingpatches, vendors create full packages offixed software to simplify package main-tenance. If a system administrator needsto install a new package, the processonly requires installing the latest version.

Patch activation: To activate a patchin Solaris, the system may have toregenerate its devices during thereboot if the fix is for driver compo-nents. In most kernel or library patches,Sun recommends installing in singleuser mode. This allows the system to

be immediately rebooted after applyingthe update, while minimizing the poten-tial for a loss of user data. In Linux,however, there is no such thing asreconfiguration reboot or device regen-eration. Sometimes it is possible toupdate kernel modules without reboot-ing the system by removing theaffected module from kernel, updatingthe kernel module, and reinserting thenew kernel module.

Disk management: In both Solarisand Linux, before a disk can be sliced foruse, the disk has to be recognized by theoperating system. However, Linux ismore automatic. Solaris requires settingup a file to recognize specific targets andLUN numbers for new SCSI devices inthe system. In Red Hat and SUSE Linux,device files are automatically createdevery time a system boots, so a recon-figuration reboot is not necessary.

Disk file systems: Solaris nativelyonly supports the old UFS file system forhard disks which has changed in Solaris10. The other types of disk-based filesystems are HSFS (for CD-ROM), PCFS(for diskettes), and UDF (for DVD).

Administrators will love the optionsand tools for modern file systems inLinux. There are several disk file systemsfrom which to choose. On Red Hat, thedefault disk file system is ext3, and onSUSE, it is reiserfs.

Basic user administration: TheSolaris version of LDAP uses the iPlanetDirectory Server, while both Red Hat andSUSE Linux use OpenLDAP, a softwarepackage founded with support from IBM.This package provides a stand-alone

and update replication daemon, as wellas libraries, utilities, Java* classes andsample clients. OpenLDAP is also avail-able for Solaris.

Security hardening: Most Solarisadministrators are familiar with YetAnother Solaris Security Package,YASSP and the Solaris Security Toolkit,used to more efficiently harden a Solarissystem. Sun also supported SolarisExtensions (as an add on—not inte-grated). Security hardening is integratedinto Linux distributions. One of the mostpopular tools used to implement systemhardening is called Bastille. Bastille Linuxis an open-source project aimed at hard-ening a Linux system by changing someof the system’s settings based on secu-rity best practices.

Installation: The good news here isthat Solaris and Linux are virtually identi-cal in installation and setup althoughadministrators should find modern Linuxsetups much easier than older Solaris orSolaris 10. As with a Solaris installation,Linux will perform operations such asprobing the hardware for devices andload the appropriate device drivers,assigning a host name, setting up a net-work setup type (whether DHCP or staticIP), and prompting for software bundlesor packages to install.

Joe McKendrick is a research consul-tant specializing in IT and organizationaldevelopment trends, authoring specialreports for IDC and Gartner. Joe can bereached at [email protected].

ONLINE: Go to www.ibm.com/l inux to download afree technical reference for migration from Solaris to Linux technol-ogy-based systems and to get more information about migratingfrom Solaris to Linux.

Smoothing the Transition From Solaris to Linux

TRENDSIndustry signals to keep you in the know

Linux* has been successful as a server and

client-side operating system (OS) in recent

years, but such visible enterprise deployments

are only part of the story. Linux is also working

behind the scenes, powering countless systems

and devices, including network equipment, print-

ers, cell phones, smart mobile phones, kiosks,

point-of-sale terminals, digital-media processors,

routers, firewalls, storage devices, medical-

imaging equipment, industrial-control applica-

tions and private-branch exchanges. Linux now

runs on a huge array of processors that power

these devices, including IBM* PowerPCs, ARM

embedded processors, Intel* XScale, Intel

Pentium M, AMD Geode, NEC MPCore and

countless others.


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Linux is now found in countless systems and devices worldwide

BY JOE MCKENDRICK

GoingMainstream



The embedded-Linux market is now a growing part of themainstream embedded market. Recent surveys from VentureDevelopment Corporation (VDC), for example, calculate thatbetween 11 and 15 percent of developers now use Linux in theirembedded projects—making this a leading OS choice. (By con-trast, the second and third leading categories—Wind RiverVxWorks and Microsoft* Windows* XP Embedded—drew 10 per-cent and 6 percent, respectively.) Linux use is expected to growto an almost 20-percent share within the next two years. For32-bit implementations, the share of embedded Linux is alreadyat 25 percent, VDC found. VDC also put the embedded-Linuxmarket at $134 million in shipments during the last year, a 46-percent jump from the previous year.

While unaware of it, end users touch embedded Linux everyday as they go about their business. “When you make a wirelessphone call, you’re likely to traverse two or three copies of car-rier-grade Linux,” says Bill Weinberg, senior technology analystat Open Source Development Labs (OSDL). “Linux may run inyour phone and also inhabit your network. When you connectto the Internet through your local ISP, the wireless router youuse to connect your notebook is very likely running Linux, as isyour telecommunications provider.” An impressive roster ofbrand-name equipment manufacturers has adopted Linux,including IBM, Sony, Motorola, Phillips, Panasonic and Siemens.

Embracing LinuxMotorola has been increasing its presence in the Linux andopen-source space, recently launching a Web site aimed atreaching open-source developers. “What’s key to a consumerelectronics company such as ours is the brand and the abilityto innovate around that brand,” explains Mark VandenBrink,senior director and chief platform architect for MotorolaMobile Devices. “Linux enables us to innovate in the way weneed to. All of our strategic innovation now takes place onthe Linux platform.”

The platform providers that power these devices also areembracing Linux. MontaVista Software, started in 1999, isperhaps one of the earliest embedded-platform vendors tobuild on Linux. Currently, MontaVista, an IBM business part-ner, supports more than 200 Linux-support packages for eval-uation and deployment computer boards from companies

worldwide. Weinberg, an original founder of MontaVista,related that he had “spent many years with IBM in helping toembed Linux on PowerPC and other processors, where Linuxwas the operating system for a variety of networking andmultimedia applications.”

Another leading embedded-platform vendor, Wind RiverSystems, made the move to an embedded-Linux technology-based platform for network equipment in early 2005, followeda few months later by the release of a Linux technology-basedplatform targeting mobile phones, set-top boxes, personal-video recorders and other consumer-electronicsdevices. “We hit critical mass with Linux just in the last sixmonths, in terms of having a full range of products that meeta lot of different markets,” says Glenn Seiler, director of WindRiver’s Linux product line. “We’ve been supporting Linux inthe networking space for two years, and now we’re making anew push for Linux in the consumer space. We have some bigcustomers, like Nortel, that are putting Linux into core andedge networking devices.”

Embedded vendors have been accelerating efforts to makeLinux accessible and easy to use, says IDC analyst FredBroussard. He says embedded-Linux vendors are “creating adeveloper kit that’s easy to use, virtually giving it away, thenpartnering like mad on the hardware side and on the softwareside so that developers have reasons to use the kit. Before, theywould sell their kits for thousands of dollars.”

Toasters No MoreTo a number of industry observers, the growth of Linux in theembedded space means more than simply having a new OS intown. Linux’s arrival is a sign that embedded systems anddevices have matured to enterprise-class standards, and, as aresult, breaks down the wall that separated the devices fromenterprise systems. The Linux that’s used within the devices isthe same OS that runs the largest servers.

“Embedded devices used to be unconnected, with propri-etary or simplistic user interfaces,” says Weinberg. Now, hesays, “The modern embedded application is a network devicethat presents a Web-based management interface. It has corefunctionality defined in terms of its connectivity to theInternet. Printers, multifunction devices and phones have

“W hen you connect to the Internet through your local ISP, the wireless

router you use to connect your notebook is very likely running Linux,

as is your telecommunications provider.”

—Bill Weinberg, senior technology analyst, Open Source Development Labs

gone from being standalone proprietary peripherals to stan-dards-based network devices. We’re using an enterpriseoperating system in what was a toaster environment. It’svery liberating.”

The rise of Linux means devices can begin to incorporate arange of functionality far beyond the limited capability of thesmall-footprint proprietary OSs of the past. With Linux,embedded developers “can make use of a wide range of pub-licly existing device drivers, design systems using the latestcommunication protocols, more easily build robust graphicalinterfaces, supplement existing platforms with technologyleveraged from the enterprise Linux domain, and enjoy royalty-free production licensing,” according to Chris Lanfear,director of VDC’s Embedded Software Group.

70 Kb is as 70 Kb DoesA major criticism is that Linux requires more system resourcesthan many of the small-footprint real-time operating systems(RTOSs) specifically designed to run within limited-memorydevices. “Embedded Linux is no different from desktop orenterprise Linux,” Weinberg points out. “Traditional RTOSswere animals that lived in under 60 to 70 kilobytes. But theywere relatively trivial pieces of software performing a yeo-man’s task in traditional embedded systems. But in terms ofthe size and scope, they’re very small. And my feeling hasalways been ‘70 kb is as 70 kb does.’ ”

As essential features are added to an RTOS to make anembedded device fully functional, the size often swellsbeyond an equivalent Linux deployment. “Once you take atraditional RTOS kernel, and you bolt on TCP/IP and a Java*Virtual Machine and a real file system, it’s actually biggerthan the equivalent Linux integration,” says Wienberg. WhileLinux requires at least 1 to 2 MB, Weinberg adds that much ofthe device hardware becoming available these days has thatcapacity and more.

Another concern raised with Linux is that it’s not inher-ently an RTOS—one of the leading features often associatedwith embedded devices. “In addition to its substantial codesize, Linux isn’t innately well equipped to manage systemresources or handle strict real-time requirements as efficientlyas smaller, more nimble embedded and real-time operatingsystems,” notes Lanfear.

However, Weinberg questions the perception that mostembedded systems need to be real-time. “Linux is not a real-time operating system, but many real-time operating systemsare overrated,” he said. “Maybe only 10 to 15 percent ofembedded applications have a real-time requirement. Theassociation between real time and embedded has always beenoverstated.” The rise of Linux within embedded environmentsmay underscore this fact as well, Weinberg continues.

Small-footprint RTOSs are unable to handle the demands ofincreasingly sophisticated and enterprise-aware devices, either.For example, many devices—particularly smart mobilephones—“have a software content that’s doubling every year,”says Weinberg. “They now have between seven and ten millionlines of code. That much code overwhelms the classic RTOS.You end up with an inverted pyramid, where the application istotally out of scale with the underlying RTOS, which becomesincapable of managing the application’s complexity. Likeenterprise workloads, embedded applications are becominghuge, complicated systems with thousands of threads andgreat complexity.”

Ripple EffectsThe advantages of embedded Linux are most likely to bedirectly seen first by device manufacturers and developers.However, end-users and their organizations also will feel theeffects of enhanced functionality, more competitive pricing,and faster, more responsive innovation as vendors cut loosefrom proprietary systems and migrate to embedded Linux.

Price is the advantage many people are aware of with Linuxdeployments, since developers and users can download anddeploy as many copies of Linux as desired without additionallicensing fees. Industry experts caution, however, that Linuxisn’t free, since new products require investments of develop-ment resources. However, the flexibility and streamlining thatLinux brings to bear can ripple through the supply chain.Device manufacturers and end users “go from a royalty-bearing proprietary operating system, or in-house operatingsystem with amortized support cost based on internal person-nel, to a community-supported and royalty-free based operat-ing system,” according to Weinberg. “It’s an easy transition interms of improving the margins on bills of materials.” Thissavings, of course, is translated to the retail costs of embed-ded devices.

“From the perspective of the appliance builder, using Linuxor using open source reduces the cost of goods enormously,”says Bernard Golden, chief executive officer for Navica andauthor of “Succeeding with Open Source.” “They don’t haveto write it, or build it; they can just piggyback on it. Maybethey add some secret sauce on top of it, or maybe modify itsomewhat for their purposes. It certainly reduces the costs,which means the product can be delivered at a much lowerprice point, which means that more people will adopt it.”

Since the Linux source code can be acquired at no cost, thetesting and prototyping phase of development is greatlyaccelerated as well, says Wind River’s Seiler. “Linux givesdevelopers very rapid prototyping, with access to source codeat no cost. Therefore, developers and manufacturers havemore control over their projects.”

TRENDSIndustry signals to keep you in the know


Faster Time to MarketFast time to market is the ultimate result of the control andflexibility enabled through embedded Linux. “Device manu-facturers need fast time to market, and this requires morecontrol and flexibility over their projects,” says Seiler. Sincemany communities and projects are occurring around Linux,new innovations are constantly at the ready. Time to marketis no longer dependent a new release or update from theoperating system vendor. “There is more innovative technol-ogy being developed in open source than any one company,even Microsoft, can deliver by itself,” he adds.

Such ongoing innovation can make a difference in a globalmarketplace. This has been critical for Motorola, which has beenincorporating Linux within many of its mobile-phone productsfor the past three years. “The selling seasons for our cell phonespeak at different times across the world,” says VandenBrink.“The Chinese New Year is a big time for selling phones inChina,” he explains. “Christmas and back to school are big timesfor selling in the United States. Depending on which region andcountry you are, you have to be able to release devices withneeded feature sets at varied times throughout the year. Linuxgreatly enhanced our ability to make changes when we neededto make changes to address certain parts of the global market.”

With proprietary vendors, VandenBrink said, new releases arelimited because each company has its own release schedule.“With Linux, we don’t miss a turn in the market because a par-ticular piece of software was ready or wasn’t ready. It puts moreof the control back into the handset manufacturers’ hands.”

In the process, manufacturers or vendors can concentrateon their core applications and functionality, without the dis-tractions of OS design. “They don’t have to spend a year-and-a-half designing plumbing,”says Golden. “They can focus onwhat they can add on top of that,to that differentiate themselves.”

Wind River ’s Sei ler agrees“most companies don’t want to bein the operating system business.They want to be in the businessof providing cell phones, routersor TVs.”

Enhanced InnovationLow costs and outstanding flexibility helps increase the inno-vation rate possible in the embedded-device marketplace. “Wewent with Linux because it provides a rate of innovation wefound compelling,” explains VandenBrink. “When we lookedat Linux, we saw the ability to push things strategically fasteralong a certain path, without having to wait on, or be gatedby, somebody else’s release schedules. Linux provides a wayto rapidly innovate and get new features into a device with alot more freedom.”

With Linux under the covers, device developers and manu-facturers can modify functions as needed. “One company Iworked with needed a near real-time operating system, sothey were able to use a Linux that used a different memorymechanism to help ensure quicker response times,” saysGolden. “Linux is also very useful to embedded or special-purpose hardware manufacturers, because they can modifythe code to enable support for their specific hardware. WithWindows, by contrast, manufacturers have no control overthe software, so they have to wait for Microsoft to put supportfor their hardware into the operating system. With Linux,manufacturers can modify the operating system and ship thatversion with their product.”

Weinberg observes that Linux has evolved embedded sys-tems to become “peer devices—on a par with the desktop anda peer of the server,” he explains. “They can no longer affordto rely on simplistic ‘bare-metal’ RTOS models. There’s nolonger a discontinuity between embedded and enterprise.They demand an enterprise-class platform underneath. Linux,whether it’s on an enterprise server or on an embeddeddevice, is a single OS with a continuum of applications.”

Joe McKendrick is a research con-sultant specializing in IT and organi-zational development trends, author-ing special reports for IDC andGartner. He’s contributing editor toDatabase Trends & Applications andeditor of Data Center Trends &Applications. Joe can be reached [email protected].

Worldwide Shipments of Embedded Linux* Operating Systems

2003 $73.2 million

2004 $91.5 million

2005 $133.6 million

Source: Venture Development Corporation

“P rinters, multifunction devices and phones have gone from being standalone

proprietary peripherals to standards-based network devices. We’re using

an enterprise operating system in what was a toaster environment. It’s

very liberating.”—Bill Weinberg



s a growing company, Linux* made sense

for Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com).

Now, as a global operation serving more

than 9,000 clients worldwide, Ticketmaster contin-

ues to rely on the cost-effectiveness and flexibility

of Linux.

In short, Ticketmaster is finding that Linux makes

more sense than ever. The company’s in the final

stages of an initiative to revamp its financial-sys-

tems operations. With the help of IBM and SAP,

Ticketmaster is replacing three regional datacenters

with two new sites—a primary site located on the

West Coast and a disaster-recovery (D/R) site on the

East Coast, both using IBM* System x* hardware.

“The ticketing marketplace is continuing to

evolve, and Linux and the SAP platform provide

Ticketmaster with the flexibility to bring new ser-

vices online quickly,” notes IBM's Steven L. Canepa,

vice president, global media and entertainment

industry. “The Ticketmaster solution is an excellent

example of the role Linux is now playing in trans-

forming core business-solution environments.”

A

With its Linux foundation and support from IBM and SAP, Ticketmastertransforms its financial-systems environment BY NEIL TARDY

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The Ticket to

IT Efficiency

Taking the Next StepTicketmaster is an almost ubiqui-tous presence in today's consumerworld. The company, which has itsheadquarters in West Hollywood,Calif., provides exclusive ticketingservices for hundreds of leadingarenas, stadiums, performing-artsvenues , museums and thea t e r s .Conducting sales online, over thephone and at more than 6,500 retailTicket Center outlets, Ticketmastersold 119 million tickets—valued at$6 billion—in 2005.

Founded in 1976, Ticketmaster hasundergone many changes and transfor-mations in its history. But one constantseems to be growth. From 2000 to2005, Ticketmaster increased the num-ber of tickets sold on the system from83 million to 119 million. In that sametimeframe, revenue rose from $519 mil-lion to $950 million.

Like many companies that conduct a significant percentage of

their business online,Ticketmaster's ongoinggrowth—including thedynamic products andservices offered to itsclients to help the com-pany sell more tickets andmore effectively manageits ticketing operations—presents continued chal-lenges for its IT depart-ment. Ticketmaster hadalready conducted vari-ous IT consolidation pro-jects in recent years,

when in 2003 it turned its attention tothe area of financials. Looking first at itsoperations in the United States, the com-pany felt it had outgrown its currentsetup. In the United States, Ticketmasterwas running three datacenters, all housed with different systems that randifferent basic accounting applications

like general ledger and accountspayable/accounts receivable.

“Initially, we were a smaller company,and we had much more of a regionalfocus,” explains Ticketmaster's VivekKalra, vice president, financial systems.“But as we were expanding and growingacross all areas of our business, it wasjust a natural evolution to look for effi-ciencies. We were taking the next step.”

Transforming the SilosThe next step, as Ticketmaster saw it,was to further strengthen its relation-ships with its clients—the event organiz-ers and promoters, many of whom alsorun the stadiums, arenas, concert halls

and other myriad venuesthat contract withTicketmaster to handleticket sales for theirevents. Given the com-pany's mission to help itsclients sell more tickets,creating efficiencies wasparamount. By updatingthe financial systems,

Ticketmaster felt it could better managethe critical process of settling the funds itreceives from ticket sales and directingthe appropriate contractual percentagesto its huge roster of clients.

“We process an incredible volume ofticket sales on behalf of our clients,”says Kalra. “Every financial transaction


But as we were expanding and growingacross all areas of our business, it was justa natural evolution to look for efficiencies.We were taking the next step.”

—Vivek Kalra, vice president, financial systems, Ticketmaster

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must be settled inan accurate andtimely manner. It'sjust mission-criticalto our business, sowe really needed astable platform thatwe could rely on.”

With the threeregional datacentersserving the eastern, central and westernportions of the United States, Ticketmasteressentially had three teams handlingthis process for three different sets ofclients. As noted, each datacenter hadits own IT infrastructure and applicationenvironment. The need for greater uni-formity among the datacenters wasbecoming apparent to Ticketmaster'sinternal staff of users responsible forcalculating client settlements.

“Our existing applications needed tobe updated to talk to each other inorder to streamline support issues,training issues—we needed a systemthat would bring it all together in anintegrated environment instead ofwithin silos,” says Kalra. “When some-one required a consolidated report, datawould need to be extracted and run ina centralized warehouse, or sometimesmanually in Excel.”

Recognizing that itneeded to providethe same user expe-rience to everyoneworking with itsfinancial applica-tions, Ticketmasterbegan investigatingERP solutions. Byusing a packaged

application, the company was breakingnew ground. Ticketmaster has tradition-ally relied on—and continues to prosperwith—home-grown applications. Thatthe company has accomplished so muchwith its in-house skills is to a signifi-cant degree a result of its long-time useof Linux. Ticketmaster has deftly lever-aged the platform over the past fiveyears, converting many applicationsfrom other operating systems (OSs) to


Linux. This is directly related toLinux's maturity, the greater amountand variety of software available, andthe depth of experience within theTicketmaster organization. Currently,with the exception of databases, thecompany's core back-end applicationsrun on the Linux platform.

“Linux is leading-edge technology,”Ticketmaster's Jorge Chereque,business systems manager,points out, “and we have verygood Linux expertise in-house.”

Adds Kalra: “We're pleasedwith our commitment to Linux.We believe in the value.”

An Efficient EnvironmentIn an ERP solution, Ticketmasterwas seeking enhanced function-ality for its end users. But, giventhe company's commitment, thecapability to support Linux wasequally essential. Thus, in late2003, Ticketmaster settled on

SAP and its mySAP BusinessSuite. SAP's support of Linux iswell-established—the Waldorf,Germany-based company, in

fact, was the first to run mission-critical ERP appli-

cations on Linux.While Ticketmaster uti-

lizes several of mySAP'sfinancial modules, it was

drawn to one particular mod-ule, called Incentive and

Commissions Management (ICM). ICM allows Ticketmaster's

financial systems team to more-easilymanage client accounts, providing anintegrated solution that's flexibleenough to meet the company's increas-ingly complex calculation requirements.As the company adds new ticketingproducts and components in response tocontinued growth and to better serve itsclients, it needs an IT environment that

will keep pace and support every impactto the financial systems and processes.

The staged rollout began in spring2005, when the company's West regionbegan using the general financial mod-ules. By November, Ticketmaster's threeU.S. regions were all up on the generalmodules, while ICM was live for the Westregion. In June 2006, the company com-pleted the ICM implementation in two ofthe three U.S regions. Ultimately, SAPwill be in place worldwide atTicketmaster—a rollout is already under-way for the company's Canadian financial-systems group.

Linux systems hostthe mySAP financialmodules in use atTicketmaster. “When wewent through the ven-dor-selection process,we were focused on thefunctionality, and that'swhere SAP came up asthe frontrunner,” says

Kalra. “But if Linux was not certifiedwith SAP, that certainly would havebeen a large factor in the decision-making process.”

Just as Ticketmaster's IT group knowsLinux, it knows IBM. Chereque notes thatthousands of System x servers aredeployed throughout the company.However, at the three U.S. regional cen-

ters, the financial systems wereMicrosoft* platforms. With themove to the primary and D/R sites,Ticketmaster replaced its Windows*systems with new IBM hardwarerunning Linux. The company hasdozens of servers assigned to SAP,but more importantly, it now offersa single platform that helps itsbusiness operate more efficiently.

“From a hardware point of view,it was easy to think of IBM, becauseof the relationship we've estab-lished with them,” Chereque adds.

IBM not only provided the newsystems at Ticketmaster, it lent its

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We’ve found that other big companies arenow running Linux as the main platform.Linux has always allowed us to run a cost-effective hardware infrastructure.”

—Jorge Chereque, business systems manager, Ticketmaster


considerable consulting expertiseduring the SAP rollout. IBM is anacknowledged leader in supportingbusiness-critical applications likeSAP's. From their global-alliancerelationship that spans nearly threedecades, SAP and IBM share morethan 10,000 customers worldwide.

“Without prior experience withimplementing ERP, we were look-ing for a provider that could miti-gate some of the risks of goingwith an ERP package,” Kalraexplains. “Also with the fact thatICM is a relatively new module, weneeded a strong implementationprovider that had a healthy rela-tionship with SAP. We relied onsome of the specialists from both IBMand SAP when it came to fine-tuningand configuring.”

Linux is the FoundationWith its transformation of the finan-cial systems team's IT environment

nearly complete in the UnitedStates, Ticketmaster is betterthan ever. In addition to deliv-ering a better environment forits end users, the project is helping the company furtherstrengthen the relationships ithas with its clients. Ticketmasterclearly recognizes the value ofLinux to its operations.

“We've found that other bigcompanies are now running Linuxas the main platform,” saysChereque. “Linux has alwaysallowed us to run a cost-effectivehardware infrastructure.”

Neil Tardy, a freelance writer and editor, has covered technology since1996. Neil can be reached at [email protected].


UP CLOSECUSTOMER: Ticketmaster

HEADQUARTERS: West Hollywood, Calif.

BUSINESS: Global ticket sales

HARDWARE: System x hardware

SOFTWARE: SAP’s mySAP Business Suite

CHALLENGE: Improving financial systems management

SOLUTION: Using System x hardware andSAP software to consolidate and improveavailability of IT environment


Implementing Web services with Linux on a System i platform

provided Olympus America with unexpected benefits BY KRISTIN LEWOTSKY

Andrew Bartellino, manager, technical support andoperations, iSeries hardware, Olympus America Inc.,chose Linux on System i hardware to increasecapacity and improve system performance.

The AccidentalAdvantage



SSerendipity can be a wonderfulthing, especially when it resultsin saving time and money while

achieving improved performance. WhenOlympus America needed to scale itsWeb-services effort, the company acti-vated an IBM* System i* partition fittedwith Linux*. Going with a Linux imple-mentation was the fastest way to get thecapacity it needed. The group didn’t golooking for high performance and relia-

bility, which made the 3:1 performanceenhancement the Linux solution pro-vides even sweeter.

If you think of Olympus as a manufac-turer of cameras and other consumerelectronics, you’d be partly right; that’sfar from the whole story. OlympusAmerica and parent company OlympusCorp. have leveraged their imagingexpertise to penetrate the healthcare mar-ket with diagnostic, therapeutic andimaging equipment, such as endoscopes,blood analyzers and confocal micro-scopes. In fact, healthcare makes up themajority of the company’s business.

When you play in the healthcare mar-ket, lives can hang in the balance.Providing and servicing equipment asrapidly as possible is key. After imple-menting JD Edwards World enterpriseresource planning (ERP) software on thei5/OS* platform, the company turned toa Datasweep solution to service andrepair medical products. While itachieved its, the solution had one significant downfall—it had no mecha-nism to access the core data it requiredfrom the ERP system.

Some of the access was periodic, butsome of it needed to take place in realtime. The service and repair system forthe medical division, for example,needed real-time pricing information aswell as service-contract information.

To solve the problem, the team turnedto a Web-services approach (see thesidebar, “Understanding the Jargon,”page 25). The Olympus America ITgroup built more than 50 different Webservices, leveraging Java* 2, PlatformEnterprise Edition (J2EE) and Apache

Tomcat server, including price lookup,inventory allocation, bill-of-materialretrieval and service-contract retrieval—as well as a credit-card authorizationthat wasn’t a function of the ERP sys-tem. Initially, they implemented theapplications on a Windows* server.Serendipity came into play when theyneeded additional availability.

Olympus purchased a System i platform with 32 processors, 24 ofwhich were active. “IBM had an offeringthat gave you the opportunity to useLinux as part of your system,” saysAndrew Bartellino, manager, technicalsupport and operations, iSeries* hard-ware, at Olympus America Inc. “Whenwe purchased our 890, it was purchasedas a Standard edition. We thenupgraded it to an Enterprise edition, andwith that there was the promotion of afree processor to be set up in Linux.”The team took advantage of that offer,creating a partition using one of theircurrent processors and installing Linux.“It really was an offering from IBM thatgave us the opportunity to look into[Linux] and further explore how itwould integrate and work within ourorganization,” Bartellino adds.

“Basically, it was a question of availability,” says Director of SystemsDevelopment Bob Heiler. “We knew wehad the partition out there, so we said,‘Let’s take advantage of this, as we don’thave to go out and buy another server.Let’s give this a shot.’ ”

New TerritoryIt’s human nature to want to stick withthe tried-and-true solution, especially

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JIM ABBOTT


when access to company-critical sys-tems is at stake. As a result, organiza-tions that haven’t run Linux are oftenuneasy about making the leap. Yet, asOlympus America’s experience shows,the shift shouldn’t be a big, scary thing.For Paul Franceschini, manager of sys-tems development, and NarayananPillai, project leader, the chance to workwith Linux was a long-awaited profes-sional opportunity.

“Pillai and I knew that there was a lotof success with the Linux OS (operatingsystem) running on a System i parti-tion,” Franceschini says. “One of ourcareer goals was to do this someday. As

soon as we were presented with theopportunity, we worked it out.”

The Olympus team had an advan-tage in Pillai, who’d spent severalyears exploring Linux on his owntime. “Whenever I’ve played in theJ2EE arena, it’s always been on aLinux server at home—and one ofthe outstanding things that I’ve seenin that is that both Apache’s Webserver and their application serverTomcat run beautifully on the box,”he says. “We knew that Linux wouldrun extremely well on the System ihardware. When Andrew said theyhad a guest partition available, wejumped at it.”

To get the partition operating,the team first had to install the

OS. They chose Red Hat Linux. Next,they instal led IBM’s 64-bit JavaDevelopment Kit and then installedApache’s HTTP server and Apache’sTomcat Application server. “Once wehad Linux set up and running,” saysPillai, “Apache’s binaries for LinuxWeb server and Tomcat were so simpleto set up that we could do it blind-folded, almost.”

Because of the nature of Web ser-vices, the change of OSs from Windowsto Linux was essentially transparent tothe Web-services framework and appli-cations the group had built. Overall, theimplementation process went smoothly.

“I think the bottom line is that althoughwe did have some good in-houseknowledge, we feel that someone who has a basic knowledge could besuccessful with this same sort of environment,” says Franceschini.

More Bang for the BuckThe IT department’s decision to go withLinux was purely pragmatic, but ityielded unanticipated benefits. The JDEdwards ERP solution was resident on aSystem i model 890 with the Linux partition. The group had already beenrunning the Web-services framework ona separate non-IBM server using twoprocessors and 2 GB of memory. Oncethey activated the Linux partition onthe System i platform, it performed thesame work with only one processor and1 GB of memory.

When Pillai and Franceschini beganexperimenting with the capabilities ofthe Linux partition, they made a star-tling discovery—they could double theload on the Linux partition without anychange in performance. “It wasserendipity more than anything else,”says Pillai. “Once we had the environ-ment up and running, just for giggleswe sent twice as much work to theLinux partition as would go to theWindows server. The response timesdidn’t change.” At maximum, they weresending three requests to the Linux boxfor every one request sent to theWindows box, for a 3:1 performanceimprovement. They’ve since scaled backfrom that point.

There are mitigating factors, ofcourse. The Linux partition has theadvantage of residing on the same sys-tem as the ERP application, as opposedto a separate server. The Linux partitionthus interfaces with the data over a Gbinternal virtual LAN, compared to theWindows server, which must accessdata over a physical LAN operating at100 Mbps. “None of this should havemade as much of a difference as we gotout of it,” Pillai says. “The [System i]hardware was definitely a factor.Definitely, Linux is also a factor, and of

“It really was an offering from IBM that gave us the opportunity to look into [Linux] and furtherexplore how it would integrate and work within our organization.”—Andrew Bartellino, manager, technical support and operations, iSeries* hardware, Olympus America Inc

“It really was an offering from IBM that gave us the opportunity to look into [Linux] and furtherexplore how it would integrate and work within our organization.”—Andrew Bartellino, manager, technical support and operations, iSeries hardware, Olympus America Inc.

UP CLOSECUSTOMER: Olympus America Inc.

HEADQUARTERS: Center Valley, Pa.

BUSINESS: Consumer electronics

HARDWARE: Two IBM System i5model 570s

SOFTWARE: Lotus Domino, LotusNotes, Red Hat Linux, Tivoli StorageManager, JD Edwards ERP software,Java 2, Platform Enterprise Edition,Apache Tomcat server, JavaDevelopment Kit

CHALLENGE: Consolidating its IT environment

SOLUTION: Running a Linux partitionon System i hardware, which doubledthe workload they could previously perform on a Windows server

course the [Java Development Kit] couldbe a factor,” he adds.

The process wouldn’t be completewithout a few challenges. The limitedavailability of Linux training is one,Franceschini says, though there aremore offerings daily.

A somewhat bigger problem arosefrom the fact that the group is runningboth Linux and Windows versions ofthe Web-services environment andvendor applications. Part of systemadministration is monitoring processesand performance. That’s typicallystraightforward with the right tools,provided you’re working with a singleOS. Working with two OSs can gettricky. “This Linux environ-ment is load balanced with aWindows server that runs theexact same applications,”says Franceschini. “The chal-lenge there is to find toolsthat allow us to monitor bothof these operating systems atthe same time.” Currently, theteam manually monitors sta-tus; they’re still seeking asolution that can do both.

The dual-OS environmentposes other challenges.“Something as simple asdeploying the application toboth servers requires two dif-ferent processes,” says Pillai.“For Windows, we just map adrive and drop it, and that’sthe end of it. With Linux,because we don’t run Samba,we have to actually have aclient on the deployingmachine to do a secure FTPtransfer to the Linux box.”

Going ForwardThe group chalks up a significant por-tion of their Linux success to theSystem i platform. “It’s important tounderstand that we did this on theSystem i platform,” says Heiler. “We gota lot of support from IBM trying to runLinux, and it was successful because itjust fit very well.”

“Certainly, the reliability that the sys-tem provides is great,” Bartellino says.“Our downtime is very limited on thisplatform unless there’s some critical fixwe have to perform.” Like Heiler, heconsiders the Linux/System i synergy acrucial part of the value proposition. “Ithink the marriage between Linux andthe System i platform is really, reallygood. Running it on a different plat-form, would it perform as well, would itbe as reliable? I’m not 100-percentsure,” he confesses. “We can certainlyspeak on behalf of the System i solutionitself—its superior hardware and thereliability is unbelievable.”

The company recently relocated itsheadquarters to Center Valley, Pa., andconsolidated its IT operations in thatfacility. At that time, they switchedfrom the System i model 890 to twoSystem i5* model 570s. Relocating theSystem i platform with its Linux parti-tion was a matter of moving the box,plugging it in and rebooting. “We just

pretty much took the Linux partition,saved it and restored it using IBMTivoli* Storage Manager (TSM),” saysBartellino. “The integration for thatpiece was seamless. It took maybe a fewhours at best.”

In addition to the obvious perfor-mance advantages, the Linux effort hasgiven Olympus the flexibility to pickand choose OSs going forward, depend-ing on the application. If the partitionand the data reside on the same System i platform, for example, thedecision is straightforward. The com-pany has no plans to migrate to eitherall Linux or all Windows, but will con-tinue to run a mix of the two.

The model 570s run avariety of workloads, mostprominently i5/OS with fivepartitions running JDE,Lotus* Domino*, LotusNotes* and SPSS. The ITdepartment also has fournative AIX* 5L partitionsrunning TSM and oneLinux partition. Linux isn’tcurrently a factor in theirhigh-availability (HA) solu-tion. They have, however,discussed creating a secondlogical partition on the sec-ond i570 that would ini-tially be used for testingbut could be used for HA inthe future.

As to Linux, the team ispleased with their results sofar. “It definitely workedout very well for us,” saysFranceschini. “The advice Iwould give to a company

that wants to [try Linux] but may beafraid to do it is to take an applicationthat’s not mission critical and just notbe afraid to give this a try. It is easierthan you first think to implement, andthe reward is great.”

Kristin Lewotsky is a freelancetechnology writer based in Amherst,N.H. Krist in can be reached at [email protected].

Understanding the JargonWeb services: Web services refers to a platform- and language-independent method of passing data and sharingsubroutines via the Internet. Using Web services, an ITteam can write a single data-retrieval routine, for example,that will be used by applications from multiple vendors, writ-ten in different languages and running on different operatingsystems (OSs).

Partitions: To optimize performance, servers can be par-titioned. Depending on hardware and OS, servers can besplit into physical partitions or logical partitions.

Apache Tomcat: Apache is open-source software thatallows ordinary servers to act as Web servers, loadingWeb pages, etc. Apache Tomcat works with Java*servlets that enhance Web-server functionality and allowthe server to interface with other systems.

J2EE: Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is a soft-ware tool for building Java applications, for example forservices. IBM provides several different types of JavaDevelopment Kits (JDKs) to simplify the process.

JDKs: JDKs are designed to simplify creating applica-tions in the Java environment. —K.L.



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By any measure, Nationwide

is a successful company. The

Columbus, Ohio-based insur-

ance and financial services

organization is among the

largest of its kind. A member of

the Fortune 100, Nationwide has

more than $158 billion in assets

and nearly $20 billion in revenue.

Nationwide’s growth and success

have brought demands for a high

level of IT support. Customer data

must be managed, Web sites and

payment systems maintained, and

communications secure and reliable.

To keep Nationwide computing

smoothly, the firm employs thousands

of people in its IT department. “In our

business, information is key,” says Guru

Vasudeva, AVP and Enterprise Chief

Architect at Nationwide. “It is the core of

everything we do.”

Talented and reliable employees form

one element of a strong IT department, but

computer hardware is also important. As

Nationwide continued to

grow and its computer

applications proliferated, its

IT environment became more

complex. The company ended

up with thousands of servers,

many of them underutilized.

They weren’t necessarily sit-

ting idle, but they were called

upon to use only a fraction of

their computing capacity. An

internal study found that 78 per-

cent of its servers had an average

utilization of only 10 percent.

Vasudeva compares the situation

to that of a 100-lane highway where

average traffic occupied only 10

lanes. An individual server might see

occasional utilization spikes, but often

a vast amount of computing power sat

idle. This idle capacity had its costs. IT

personnel were required to set up, main-

tain and replace underutilized servers.

The servers not only cost money to pur-

chase and maintain, but they also occupied

Scale,Stretch, Flexand Repeat

BY AARON DALTON

Nationwide’s System z and Linux team create a flexible IT environment


costly floor space in an expen-sive datacenter. “Cooling, elec-tricity and maintenance costsare quite high in a datacenter,”explains Vasudeva. “If we hadnot controlled growth in thenumber of servers we used, wewould have had to significantlyexpand our datacenter—and wedid not want to do that.”

Fortunately, Vasudeva’s teamhad an alternative to expandingthe IT department’s footprint.Instead, they guided Nationwideto a virtual computing solution.“What we wanted was the ability toshare all our idle server capacityacross various applications thathave different peaks and valleys interms of computing powerdemands,” says Vasudeva. “A tech-nology called virtualization, combinedwith the Linux* operating system (OS),allowed us to achieve our goal.”

Although virtualization sounds like afancy concept, Vasudeva says it’s reallythe revival of an idea that has existedfor 40 years as proven technology in theform of mainframe computing.Nationwide purchased two IBM* System z* model 990 servers that runLinux. The System z platform allowsNationwide to place hundreds of virtualservers onto a single mainframe com-puter. Each of the virtual servers dynam-ically receives an appropriate amount ofcomputing capacity as needed.

The move toward server virtualizationhasn’t only increased efficiency from ausage point of view, it’s also increasedaverage utilization of virtual servers tomore than 80 percent. It has alsobrought significant financial benefits toNationwide. Costs of Web hosting haveplummeted, datacenter floor space hasbeen saved and power demands havedecreased to such an extent thatVasudeva estimates the move to servervirtualization will result in $16 millionin savings over a three-year period.

Planning for the Super BowlServer virtualization has givenNationwide greater flexibility in planningfor situations that call for brief spikes incomputing power. For example, ifNationwide runs a television advertise-ment during the Super Bowl directingviewers to its Web site, the companyknows millions of people will rush to itsWeb site (www.nationwide.com), requir-ing additional computing capacity tohandle the demand.

In the previous server environment,Vasudeva’s IT department neededmonths to purchase, install, configure,test and coordinate server hardware inpreparation for one night’s surge inWeb-site traffic. With the on demandcomputing capability of the System zservers, Nationwide can essentially turnon new capacity as needed and turn itoff when demand subsides.

Of course, the on demand capacity ina System z server isn’t limitless.Vasudeva says that specifics varydepending on how a deal is negotiated,but that generally IBM ships the Systemz servers with spare capacity that can beactivated for short time periods.

For example, a System zserver may ship with 100units of computing capacity,but an IT department mayonly need to use 50 of theseunits for its day-to-dayoperation. The System zcomputer knows how todivvy up those 50 units ofcomputing power to thefirm’s 100 applicationsthrough a network of vir-tual servers.

Now the corporationplans to run a televisionadvertisement during theSuper Bowl. The ITdepartment estimates theresponse to the advertise-ment during the showand in the week there-

after will require another 20 units ofcomputing power. The company simplypays for a week’s worth of 20 additionalunits of computing power up front, andIBM increases the System z machine’scomputing power for the agreed amountof time.

Vasudeva compares the flexibilityof the System z platform to a cell-phone plan. “If you paid exclusivelyby the minute, you would have toomuch uncertainty,” he says. “So youbuy a 600-minute plan and get somepredictability. Then, if you run overthe plan, you just pay for those addi-tional minutes.” In contrast, with thetraditional server environment, onceyou ran up against your minute limit,you would need to go out and pur-chase a new phone if you wanted tocontinue talking.

Even if computing demand increasesbeyond initial expectations, a System zuser may not need to add new servers,but may be able to add components (e.g.,CPU, memory) into the same System zmachine. “You just cannot get this kindof sophisticated on-demand computinganywhere else,” says Vasudeva.

The Linux AdvantageSo far, Nationwide has placed the com-pany Web site, some portions of itsagency-management system, theemployee-absence-management systemand some smaller departmental systemsinto the Linux/System z virtual-serverenvironment. The company plans to putsignificantly more of its Internet functionality onto this platform.

The move to the System z platformrepresents a major increase in Linux usefor Nationwide. Previously, the com-pany had only employed Linux in alimited way over a three-year period,but Vasudeva says his earlier experiencewith Linux had made him comfortableusing the OS as an enterprise platform.

Moreover, Vasudeva points out thatLinux offers its users certain advan-tages. For one thing, he says it’s becom-ing easier to hire skilled Linux program-mers. Vasudeva also praises the way inwhich Linux’s open-source developmentmodel stimulates frequent advances inthe OS’s functionality.

From an IT department perspec-tive, hardware neutrality is anothermajor attraction. As it becomes com-monplace for applications to run in aLinux environment, companies likeNationwide are no longer locked intocertain hardware vendors and canchoose whicheversystems work best fortheir needs.

What Goes Around ... Vasudeva sees server virtual-ization as a new-and-improved take on thetried-and-true. Inunderstanding the reasonsbehind server virtualization, hebelieves that it’s helpful toconsider the history of howfirms have tended toorganize their ITdepartments over thepast few decades.

Forty years ago, mainframes domi-nated corporate IT, but Vasudeva saysthat the older mainframes weren’tflexible enough and were too tightlycontrolled by the datacenters. As com-puters became more affordable, com-panies moved to increase flexibility bygiving each department its ownservers. This decentralization seemedlike a good idea at the time, until oneday companies realized that they had5,000 servers—each with its own main-tenance and upgrade requirements.

To achieve enterprise quality, com-panies needed to move the serversback to the datacenter for effectivemanagement. That’s when datacentercosts started to rise as companiesstruggled to cope with the mainte-nance, replacement and floor-spacedemands of so many machines.“Decentralization was cheaper on aunit-by-unit basis, but the total cost ofownership was more expensive,” saysVasudeva. “We were making penny-

wise decisions that were dollar-foolishat the aggregate level.”

In response, of course, companieslike Nationwide have turned to servervirtualization. Vasudeva points out thatthe concept of virtualization actuallydates back to the 1970s, when comput-ers were so expensive that departmentsand individuals had to share every lastbyte of computing power.

The return to the time-sharing con-cept of computing is taking place for adifferent reason now, he points out.“Where originally it was costs thatdrove us to use timesharing, now it isunderutilization and complexity thatdrives us towards virtualization,” saysVasudeva. The determining factor is nolonger the price of computers, butrather the total cost of ownership(TCO) and complexity of managingand refreshing thousands of underuti-lized servers versus a smaller numberof mainframe-type computers.

While individual servers must berefreshed every three to four years,mainframes don’t need to be replacedas often. The solution that makesmost sense i s the one thatNationwide has adopted: to give eachdepartment or application the illusionof having i ts own servers , whi lereal ly having them al l share one

computer that ’s smartenough to share resources

based on demand. The move to server virtualiza-

tion means that the datacenter hasbeen able to postpone an expansion

even as Nationwide continues togrow. While the business

has been growing andthe IT department has been

building new systems to accommodateand facilitate the growth, the bulk ofthat growth has been captured in thevirtualized environment. Vasudevasays Nationwide has been able todefer at least $20 million in

expenses that it would have incurred


“Where originally it was costs that drove us to use

timesharing, now it is underutilization

and complexity that drives us

towards virtualization.”

—Guru Vasudeva, AVP, Enterprise Chief Architect,

Nationwide

in datacenter expansion by nowif it hadn’t adopted a virtual-server model.

Efficiency and FlexibilityAs older individual servers reachthe end of their refresh cycleand go off warranty, he antici-pates hosting the systems cur-rently running on thosemachines inside the System zvirtual environment. When thathappens, not only will he beable to free considerable floorspace—resulting in real-estatesavings—he’ll also reduce thetime the IT department must spend interms of server maintenance, cablingand replacement.

As the system becomes more effi-cient, it also becomes more flexible.

Setting up a new server involved aprocess that once took weeks from startto finish—ordering, receiving, unpack-ing, cleaning up, setting up, etc. Now,the process of provisioning a new

server can be accomplished indays. “If you realize that youare running out of capacity,you just increase capacity,”says Vasudeva.

A more-efficient computingmodel, lower TCO, greater effi-ciency, time freed to work onother projects, floor space lib-erated for other uses—howeveryou look at it, the Systemz/Linux technology-based vir-tual-server environment hasbeen a great boon for theNationwide IT department andthe company as a whole.

Aaron Dalton is a writer who special-izes in business and technology topics.Aaron can be reached at [email protected].

UP CLOSECUSTOMER: Nationwide

HEADQUARTERS: Columbus, Ohio

BUSINESS: Insurance and financial services

HARDWARE: Two IBM System z model 990 servers

SOFTWARE: Linux

CHALLENGE: Virtualizing its IT environment

SOLUTION: Using IBM System z hardware torun Linux, placing hundreds of virtual serversonto a single mainframe computer



“There’s a movement afoot. Soft mur-murings of revolution and talk offundamental change. A whisper ofvoices being whisked around the

globe on the crest of an electronic wave. The clack-ing of keyboards laying bear to lines of code written in mysterious languages.”

That was how I began an article I wrote sevenyears ago. The topic? Apache, one of the most suc-cessful open-source projects ever (aside, of course,from Linux*). Things have changed quite a bit sincethen, and the “self-proclaimed hackers” I furthermention in the article have largely given way toranks of professional programmers often workingfor industry giants such as IBM.

And what was once considered a provocativemovement—a way of sticking it to the man, if youwill—has since morphed into an interesting new busi-ness model, with many IT businesses dedicating per-sonnel to work collaboratively on open-source pro-jects. Rather than endure the costly and lengthyprocess of building their own software solutions fromscratch, they’re offering up their expertise to helpinnovate open-source solutions and then apply them

to their own offerings.As things have turned out, this has been a

boon to customers, who now havemore options than

ever when deciding which applications to introduceinto their IT environments, whether open source orprivate source. Both Apache and Linux, for exam-ple, have since become ubiquitous, with IBM usingApache HTTP server as a core component ofWebSphere* Application Server (WAS) and the com-pany supporting Linux across its entire server andsoftware portfolio.

But it’s because of the success of open sourcethat users have to be more conscious about its usesand how to properly implement it. That’s why IBMhas fielded a set of guidelines to help its customerswith choosing, deploying and integrating opensource as components of their everyday computingenvironment. The following is a high-level look atthese open-source guidelines and how to applythem in practice.

Insist on Open Standards“Open standards are the key to increasing choiceand flexibility,” notes John Meegan, SoftwareGroup Open Source Strategy lead. IT environmentsbased on open standards including those imple-mented with open source, private source, and mix-ture of the two, allow companies to choosesolutions from multiple vendors and beassured that the different solutionswill work together.

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This is opposed to more proprietarysolutions, which limit customer choice toa single vendor or a single tool, therebylimiting integration opportunities.

Open standards would include specifi-cations for APIs and data and file for-mats that are openly documented, as wellas protocols and development languagessuch as HTTP, HTML, TCP/IP, XML andSQL, which have evolved under thecooperative tutelage of organizationssuch as W3C, OASIS, OMA, ISO and IETF.Because these are open standards, theycan span platforms and software solu-tions, making interoperability muchmore likely. “IBM has been a strong pro-

ponent of open standards for well overa decade,” says Steve Gerdt,

Open Source Program Director, “andwe’ve seen that being locked into a pro-prietary business model simply isn’t thebest approach to business computing.”

Similarly, open standards eliminatevendor lock-in. Companies can pick andchoose from a number of vendors, know-ing that if they move from one to another,their solution will remain essentially thesame. “For example, in the case of Linux,you can go to Red Hat or Novell, or youcan simply go to the Web and download ityourself,” says Adam Jollans, Open SourceMarketing Strategy Manager. “You’re nolonger tied into a particular vendor tosupport what is essentially your data andyour IT infrastructure.”

Evaluate Open-Source and Private-Source OptionsAs with any software acquisition, timeshould be taken to justify the use ofopen source. It shouldn’t be adopted justbecause it’s open source and “free,” but

rather because a company has a distinctbusiness requirement for it. Questions toask, according to Jollans, include, “Howdoes it fit into your IT strategy? Andhow does that IT strategy help youachieve your business goals? You needto treat open source in the same wayyou would private source.”

Some companies may have no needfor open source at all. In fact, private-source operating systems, databases orapplication servers may be perfectlysuitable for their purposes. As Jollansfurther points out, “There are some sce-

narios in most businesses whereopen source doesn’t make any

sense, and they shouldn’ttry to ram a

square peg into a round hole simplybecause they feel they have to keep upwith the so-called latest technology.”

However, other companies mayindeed have a need for open source. Inthose cases, they have the option ofdownloading the software and trying itout before putting it into production.Although proprietary software vendorsoften offer trial versions of their solu-tions, open source often allows users towork on small projects, such as devel-oping a simple Web-based application,without having to make that jump fromtrial version to production version andpaying the associated costs. “You caneasily download it from the Web andhave your developers try it out withoutmaking a potentially costly decision onit,” Jollans remarks.

Of course, going only with opensource could itself cause issues, and,according to Meegan, “Very, few companies would consider open

source/private source an either/or alter-native.” As he explains, companies needto look at both solutions and find theright fit for them. “They need to consider the pros and cons of each, tak-ing into consideration functionalrobustness, performance, scalabilityalong with service and support.”

As part of this decision-makingprocess, companies should combinetheir open- and private-source strate-gies. For example, if a company islooking at how best to build an e-com-merce site, there should be processes inplace that take into account both typesof solutions, helping create a jointlybuilt solution that uses the best of bothopen- and private-source solutions.“We follow that advice even withinIBM,” notes Jollans, “looking at whereopen source can play a role within ourproposed architecture.”

Another consideration is up-frontcosts versus recurring costs. Many peo-ple think that open source is essentiallyfree, especially if it’s downloadable andnot part of a commercial offering.However, there are ongoing costs asso-ciated even with free open-source solu-tions, including employee training andperhaps the expense related to hiringnew employees already familiar withthe solution.

In the case of open source bundledwith commercial offerings, supportremains an issue. If something were togo wrong with a commercially avail-able open-source solution, the companyusing it may have to have a contractwith the vendor to provide one-off oreven ongoing support. “A lot of peoplethink open source is cheaper, and that’scertainly true from the initial acquisi-tion perspective,” Meegan says. “Butwhat customers need to understand isthat the initial cost is a small percent-age of the overall total cost of owner-ship. You have to take into considera-tion the cost impacts associated withmigration, interoperability, ongoingservices and support, and educationand skills building.”


“IBM has been a strong proponent of open standards for

well over a decade.”—Steve Gerdt, Open Source Program Director

Evaluate Open-Source Communityand Maturity“There are tens of thousands of projectsthat are open source,” remarks Gerdt,“but I would hazard to guess that morethan 95 percent of those wouldn’t evenbe considered by an enterprise.” Thisisn’t necessarily because the open-source project hasn’t been successful,but more because of the makeup ormaturity of the community surroundingthe project.

For one thing, companies want to beaware of who’s involved in the project.If it’s just a small group of well-meaning individuals, the solution mayor may not be suitable for primetime

deployment. It’s much better to workwith an open-source

community that is well establishedand well diversified. It should also havea transparent roadmap for future devel-opment, as well as a sustainable busi-ness model.

In many cases, the involvement oflarge ISVs and business partners can alleviate many concerns customers mayhave involving open-source projects.IBM, for example, is involved in a num-ber of open-source projects, includingLinux, Apache, Eclipse and Mozilla,lending not only developer support tothe project, but also credibility.

Some open-source projects areessentially arms of for-profit compa-nies, while others are truly open to allcomers. The difference isn’t only inmotive, but also outcome, with the lat-ter community being much more

robust and diversified and thereforemore innovative.

“Just as you would with a commercialsoftware vendor, you want to make surethe open-source community you’redealing with is mature and stable. Youdon’t want it to go under only to losesupport,” Meegan says. “You want tolook at the community to see howvibrant it is, and then look further downthe line to see if there are multipleoptions in terms of vendors to providethe implementation services and support

for that project.”As Meegan further pointsout, there are many fewer

risks associated with

working with an established open-source community. It’s far less likely todry up, leaving its open-source userswithering in the sun without continuedsupport. If a vendor does go out ofbusiness, there will typically beanother to take its place, offering—thanks in large part to open stan-dards—similar services.

Establish Open-Source PoliciesOnce a company has made a decision togo with open source, after havinginsisted on open standards, evaluatedboth its open-source and private-sourceoptions, and evaluated the communitieswith which it will be working, it needsto establish internal policies regardingthe deployment and use of open sourcein the IT environment. Rather than hav-

ing people willy-nilly implementingopen source without proper authoriza-tion, an organization should educate itsemployees about exactly what opensource is and how the licensing works.

This latter point is particularly impor-tant when people are consideringacquiring open source, there are differ-ent types of licensing required, includ-ing dual licensing. In that case, thereare licenses for end users and thenlicenses for companies wishing to useopen source as part of a commerciallyavailable project. People should be madeaware of the distinctions and the proce-dures required to comply with them.Aside from that, however, open-sourcelicensing is relatively straight forward,especially when compared to private-source licensing.

“Some people think open-sourcelicensing is complex, but it’s really not,”says Gerdt. “Of the 50 or so open-sourcelicenses approved by OSI (Open SoftwareInitiative), only 10 to 12 are commonlyused, and once a company is familiarwith them, there are little changes. Onthe private-source side, however, every-one has a different user licensing agree-ment and they can differ quite a bit.”

Meegan notes that companies wouldbe wise to have a legal review of allopen-source licensing, despite thelicensing issue being relatively straight-forward. “There needs to be a formalreview process in place whereby open-source licenses can be reviewed by alegal organization,” he says. “In mostcases, there aren’t a while lot of issues ifthe open source is being used internally.However, things may become problem-atic if a company is looking to includean open-source component into a prod-uct they expect to sell externally. Inthose cases, a thorough review of open-source licensing is absolutely critical.”For its part, IBM has a steering committee that, according to Jollans,“does due diligence in terms of whoowns the code, etc.”

Additionally, private-source procure-ment procedures should also be applied


“Just as you would with a commercial software vendor,

you want to make sure the open-source community you’re

dealing with is mature and stable.”—John Meegan, Software Group Open Source Strategy lead

to open-source acquisitions. After all,both are destined to become part of abusiness’s mission-critical IT infrastruc-ture, and thereby a key component ofthe business’s larger strategic goals.These procedures should include thecreation of a management-review sys-tem—if one isn’t already in place—tohelp approve and track the use of opensource both within the company and aspart of an external effort to contributeback to the open-source community.

But as Meegan points out, some com-pany employees see open source as away to skirt internal procurement proce-dures. In fact, they may see free open-source software as a way to do an end-run around the entire process. “We’vefound quite a few IT departments thatneed a quick way to get started on a pro-ject, so they just download some open-source components,” he says. “But thenopen source of all types start to creep

into the business, and all of a sudden,you’re faced with interoperability issuesbecause you now have applications run-ning in the enterprise that the larger cor-porate IT department may not haveknown about.”

By establishing and enforcing pro-curement procedures, and educatingcompany IT teams, organizations caneffectively avoid licensing problems andopen source creep. Just as private-sourcesolutions should go through manage-ment channels, so should open source.

Be PragmaticOpen source is becoming increasinglypopular, whether as direct downloadsfrom the Web or as part of bundledpackages. Whichever the case, compa-nies should still work with the softwareas they would any private-source appli-cation, running proofs of concept andtesting. Start small by picking a single

area where you think open source mightbe beneficial and plan on a stagedimplementation assuming the pilotresults are satisfactory.

User should also make the decision torun open source based on both techni-cal and business factors, with IT andstrategic decision makers comingtogether to make sage decisions. Afterall, that software is going to become animportant part of the larger tacticalvision of the company. If open sourcedoesn’t fit, it shouldn’t be forced. But ifit does provide a business with benefit,then use it. In many cases, an openstandards blend of open-source andprivate-source software will end upproviding the best solution.

Jim Utsler, MSP TechMedia seniorwriter, has been covering the technologybeat for nearly a decade. Jim can bereached at [email protected].



t seems everyone has known someone who computes like her life—orsomeone else's—depends onit. But at The Translational

Genomics Research Institute(TGen), in Phoenix, where thestudy of billions of possiblegene interactions can be com-pressed from 12 months downto one week, the impetus reallyis life. The scientists at TGenwork to find patterns and inter-actions that can signal cancer-causing genes, which could leadto cancer-killing drugs. Thefaster they can comb throughthe haystacks of gene combina-tions for the desired patterns,the greater the hope for theeventual vaccine or treatmentthat will save a patient's life.

In research situations, it'simportant to have powerfulcomputing ability on machines

that run well in an open-sys-tems environment—sharingfiles and running parallelapplications. Why open?Because researchers in thisfield are continuously writingnew programs and upgradingold ones to quickly exploittheir latest findings. A com-puter program to test a newtheory that a type of cancercell may express a particulargene or protein patterncould've been created on anynumber of machines. Ratherthan waste time and risk thepossibility of conversion errors,open environments are thepractical answer. That’s whymost researchers, who are usu-ally fighting budget as welltime constraints, write in C onan open-source system.

Open systems in use at theASU-TGen High Performance

Computing Center, at ArizonaState University (ASU), includesan IBM* System x* BeowulfCluster consisting of 1,048Intel* Xeon CPUs for parallelcomputations and several IBM System p* symmetric multiprocessing computer systems for memory-intensivecomputations. Typically,Beowulf Clusters are scalable-performance groups of usuallyidentical PCs, running an open-source operating system (OS),such as Linux*. They’re con-nected via a high-speed com-munication network and havecommon programming andinter-processor communicationlibraries that allow systemresources to be shared for paral-lel computing.

“In the field of bioinformat-ics and computational biol-ogy, most open-source pro-

Computing LikeLife Depends on ItTGen teams IBM System p and System x servers with

Linux technology to facilitate cancer-gene research

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grams have been developed for use onLinux,” says Edward B. Suh, Sc.D.,CIO. “Biologists are comfortable andfamiliar with Linux. Open-source pro-grams are readily available; and open-source code can help optimize yourcomputational requirements rapidly onyour hardware.”

The center's machines are linkedusing a network comprised of a GbEthernet connecting 524 nodes (eachnode has two Intel Xeon CPUs).Additionally, the center has 128 of thesenodes connected with Myrinet, a low-latency, high-speed interconnect fromMyricom. “This hardware provides theability for the nodes to communicate

much faster with each other,” saysJames Lowey, manager of the center.“This enables larger, more interdepen-dent computational problems to beexamined on this system.”

For example, a lab may want to per-form a test that would require anotherlab's research findings; perhaps statisti-cally significant findings on diseasedcells treated with a specific cancer drug,to see if that drug would be effective onanother type of cancer with the samegene-expression pattern.

The ability to analyze these types ofcomplex problems can be expedited byparallel computing with the use ofMPICH, a popular message-passinginterface (MPI) library, used in theBeowulf Cluster environment. MPICHwas developed jointly by ArgonneNational Laboratory, under the direction

of Bill Gropp and Rusty Lusk; andMississippi State University, under TonySkjellum and Nathan Doss. IBM alsomade major contributions to develop-ment of MPICH, under Hubertus Frank.

Patterns, Associations and InteractionsTo fully appreciate the impact of thesetechnological contributions on life-saving science, you have to under-stand the processes. “We look at can-cer,” says Suh. To be exact, the cen-ter's genomic research encompassestumor classification, risk assessmentand prognosis, drug development, drugresponse, therapy development anddisease progression. “We may be look-

ing at melanoma to see what genesplay a role or are important to thiscancer. The patterns we deal with arenot only based on how often some-thing appears, but also the interactionit causes in other genes' behaviors.”

“How often” is key. To establish thosefrequencies, Suh and Lowey provide thescientists with machines that can runanalysis on billions of gene combinations.

“The sheer volume of data that isgenerated by these techniques requires ahuge amount of processing power, andwithout access to this computationalpower it would take many years to analyze the amount of data being gen-erated,” says Lowey.

The center, like other genetic-researchlabs, uses DNA microarrays, solid sup-ports onto which the sequences fromthousands of different genes are immo-

bilized or attached to help them investi-gate genes' relationships to cancer. Byarranging many short sequences ofnucleotides, A, T, C and G, such thatthey complement the actual genes'sequences (for example, the comple-mentary sequence to G-T-C-C-T-A willbe C-A-G-G-A-T), scientists can mea-sure the expressions of those genes overmany thousands of DNA samples in asingle experiment. They can then drawconclusions about the genes' behavior(e.g., comparing diseased cells withhealthy ones).

To isolate what genes are involved ina cancerous cell growth, scientists use aspecial type of DNA microarray chip, todetect whether a particular gene or set

of genes is being expressed more or lessthan others, under given circumstances.This is called microarray-expressionanalysis. This technique can be used todetermine the correct treatment for adisease. By comparing the similarexpression of a gene pair in a particularform of cancer, it's possible to comparethe sample of diseased tissue from apatient and discover a match, thus mak-ing the diagnosis. This is why it's soimportant to be able to compare billionsof combinations quickly. Also, by isolat-ing the expression pattern, expressionchips can be used to develop new drugs.

To examine just 600 genes, in orderto see the relationship of four genecombinations to other genes, scientistsmay have to look at more than 5 billiongene combinations. “If each gene com-bination analysis takes the range of 0.05

“We are on the edge of an unprecedented quantum leap in medical science, dependent on the computational ability to performcomplex data analyses and simulations as quickly as possible.” —Edward B. Suh, CIO, TGen


seconds, that's on the order of 10 yearsof computer analysis time,” says Suh.“But if you have 100 CPUs workingtogether, instead of 10 years, it wouldonly take a month or two—or with 1,000CPUs, less than a week.”

“It's all about the compression oftime,” agrees Lowey. “If one problemtakes four years to compute with oneCPU, this cluster could enable it to runin just a couple of days.” The computerruntimes will vary by application, ofcourse, he adds. Some applications willhave 90-percent parallel efficiency,while others may have only 50 percent.Parallel computing on a Beowulf Clusterenables the scientists to divide a compute-intensive large problem intosmall chunks that can be assigned toand run on many processors simultane-ously. The level of parallel efficiency isbased on the ratio of the additionalincrease in total computer runtime tothe number of processors used.

The center is unique in that some ofthe microarrays it uses have up to500,000 target spots on them. The datafrom the microarrays, which can buildup very quickly, is stored in IBMGeneral Parallel File Systems (GPFS).Application programs running on theBeowulf Cluster supercomputer drawfrom that data for analysis. To comb thedata, researchers run it through a vari-ety of computational algorithms, orchains of complex sets of orders.

“Most open-source scientific applica-tions are developed in the Linux envi-ronment,” says Suh. “Linux enablesquicker development time.”

One of the open-source applicationsthat's frequently run on the center'sBeowulf Cluster is the NAMD, a molecularmodeling application developed by theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champlain.

The center may use the NAMD pro-gram to analyze proteins, which areimportant in cancer research because anabnormal protein signals that the genethat made it has mutated.

A protein is a three-dimensionalstructure encoded in the gene, whichcontains the DNA instructions on howthat protein should be made up.Consequently, if this gene is mutated,the protein it produces will have anabnormal protein structure, produceabnormal hormones, etc.

To diagnose a protein, you need tounlock that structure. The NAMD program allows researchers to model theproteins by providing the tools to ana-lyze the interaction between atoms,using the laws of thermodynamics. Theresearchers can observe how the proteinmoves by measuring the active andrepulsive forces between atoms. Again,by comparing the behavior patterns ofhealthy proteins, the aberrant ones canbe singled out.

If the protein structure is known, adrug can be developed that will attachitself to that shape. Without even touch-ing the patient, researchers can compu-tationally model the drug's interactionon a biomarker gene set—which is overexpressed in cancer—to see if the newdrug or an existing drug will reduceover expression and force the cancerinto remission.

“What we would like to be able to dois to take a set of genes and say, this sethas something to do with your cancer—to diagnose and prognosticate, and cre-

ate therapeutics for each cancer,” saysSuh. “For certain types of cancers, weare already doing that now. So we havesome success stories.”

But Suh isn't content to stop at thesesuccesses; he's asking other questions,such as whether the same cancer drugthat works on breast cancer will work onother cancers. This requires complicatedanalysis. But, as the saying goes, “Theimpossible will just take a little longer.”

Limitless Work“The amount of work that can be done islimitless,” he says. “We are on the edgeof an unprecedented quantum leap inmedical science, dependent on the com-putational ability to perform complexdata analyses and simulations as quicklyas possible. The science, the equipmentis here. The key is processing andmanipulating large volumes of data atextreme computational speeds.” TheASU-TGen High Performance ComputingCenter appears to be on the right pathfor this race against disease, through thecenter's open network and operatingenvironment; and its acquisition ofincreasingly powerful processors.

Maureen Nevin has covered informa-tion technology and finance since the1980s. Maureen can be reached [email protected].

UP CLOSECUSTOMER: TGen

HEADQUARTERS: Phoenix

BUSINESS: Research institute

HARDWARE: System x Beowulf Cluster, System p hardware,General Parallel File Systems

SOFTWARE: Linux

CHALLENGE: Simplifying IT environment to help facilitate cancerresearch

SOLUTION: Using System p and System x hardware with Linux totackle compute-intensive problems quickly


Chen Yu, vice president,marketing, discusses whyYeePay chose to run Linux onIBM OpenPower hardware.



ithout visionaries spottingemerging business trendsand markets, the globaleconomy might not bewhat it is—or exist at all,for that matter. These

imaginative individuals recognized, forexample, that the Internet could createboundary-free ways of conducting business,allowing consumers to shop from their homesand businesses worldwide to reach them.

Of course, these same prophetic businessleaders would be hampered if not for tech-nology. It is, after all, IT that makes all ofthe above possible, with the Web allowingfor customer purchase and payment (bothprivate and commercial) and behind-the-scenes high-tech distribution systems pro-viding same-day order processing. Withoutcomputers and associated technologies,even simple tasks such as balancing thebooks would still be a pencil-and-paper job.

One company that might be hailed asvisionary, if for nothing other than spottingand addressing a weakness in an emergingeconomy, is YeePay, the Beijing-basedprovider of secure payment services for phone(both mobile and landline) and online users.Not only has it begun filling a gap in theChinese economy, but also deployed a simpleyet powerful IT infrastructure to make it allhappen. Thanks to the use of an OpenPower*720 server and two IBM* BladeCenter* JS20servers, it's turning vision into reality.

Four ReasonsBased in Beijing and with offices inShanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, InnerMongolia and Silicon Valley, Calif., YeePay(pronounced “e-pay”) is being positioned as

“the PayPal of China,” according to ChenYu, YeePay's vice president of marketing.But rather than focusing on credit cards,YeePay works with customers who use debitcards. This is in large part because thecredit-card business in China isn't nearly aslarge as in other countries, especially thosein the west. “Credit-card penetration inChina is very low,” Yu notes, adding that“The total number of credit cards is, Ibelieve, around 30 million—and this is of apopulation of around 1.3 billion.”

Cash- and bank- (or debit) card transac-tions, however, are much more prolific. Ofcourse, cash can't be used for any onlinetransactions (until, that is, someone comesup with a teleportation device), so that leavesbank cards to fill the void. But because bankcards require a PIN, there has to be a way toauthenticate and process payments withoutusers having to worry about PIN securityissues. Hence YeePay, which works with bothconsumers and merchants to process transac-tions, whether over the Internet, via mobilephones or traditional landline phones. “Chinahas become the largest mobile market in theworld,” Yu points out. “And it's the second-largest Internet economy in the world, withmore than 100 million users. It also hasnearly 400 million installed telephone units.There's an absolute need for our services, sopeople can securely and confidently makeonline transactions.”

Since opening its doors for business in2005, the company has already signed upmore than 1,000 merchants to take advan-tage of YeePay services. Most of these are inthe online gaming and online travel-agencyindustries, the latter of which Yu character-izes as the Chinese “equivalents of

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Travelocity and Expedia.” YeePay'sfocus on these sectors is a prelude to alarger rollout, which is similar to themethod by which credit cards became soubiquitous in the United States. “Credit-card issuers started with restaurants andthen hotels,” he says. “So right now,we're working a lot with online-gamingcompanies and travel agencies, althoughwe plan to branch out from there.”

Because the company plans to greatlyexpand its offerings over the next sev-eral years, it needed an IT infrastructurethat could easily grow with it. This nowincludes the JS20 blades and theOpenPower 720, SUSE Linux*, IBMDB2* Universal Database*, IBMWebSphere* Application Server andpayment-transaction applicationsYeePay built with Java* 2 Platform,Enterprise Edition (J2EE). RegardingLinux, Yu says, “We wanted to run aplatform that's based on industry open

standards. This gives usthe flexibility to easilyintegrate other solutionsand components as weneed them.”

Initially, before begin-ning actual operations,YeePay had deployed aSun Microsystems-basedsolution that includedofferings from BEASystems and Oracle.Although the companycould have begun busi-ness operating within theconfines of this environ-ment, it chose to look atalternatives before goinglive. This, according toYu, was because or fourprimary reasons—the firstof which had to do withcreating an IT infrastruc-ture that came from asingle vendor.

As Yu explains, “Wedidn't want to have todeal with multiple ven-

dors. As it was, we had to deal with Sunfor the hardware, Oracle for the data-base and then BEA for the Web applica-tion server. Now, with IBM, we have atotal solution: the hardware, the data-base, the application server and eventhe technical consulting. It's all inte-grated, coming from one vendor, and ifsomething does go wrong, there's nofinger pointing; you know exactlywhere to go for support.”

The second reason had to do with“quality of services,” as Yu puts it,including availability, security and scal-ability. The latter was particularlyimportant, because the companyexpects to grow well past its current1,000-plus merchant customer base inshort order. Now, using blades, the com-pany can scale according to need,employing only the required capacityinstead of too much, by, for example,purchasing a separate box that costs too

much and vastly exceeds current pro-cessing requirements.

“We wanted something that couldgrow with us, because we expect to seerapid growth of transaction volume,” Yusays. “So from IBM, we got business on-demand capabilities, and we have aninfrastructure and platform that reallyscales.” He also notes that availability iscrucial given YeePay's business, which,he says, “requires 24-7 availability.”And thus far, the company has had nounplanned downtime.

YeePay's third reason for moving tothe IBM solution had to do with whatYu calls “good domain knowledge.” Bythis he means that IBM is already wellentrenched in the Chinese banking indus-try, which makes it a good fit for the typeof business YeePay is conducting.

As Yu elaborates, “Most of the majorbanks in China are IBM customers, andwe think that’s a very important rela-tionship we can leverage.”

The fourth, but no less important rea-son, simply has to do with customer rela-tions. IBM has become a known brand inChina, and according to Yu, “even aver-age consumers recognize it, not just thoseinvolved in the IT industry. So our cus-tomers will see the IBM logo on our Website and, by proxy, give us more credibil-ity. That boosts our marketability.” Andgiven that YeePay is one of the first com-panies to enter this industry in theChinese market, this is a key advantage.

Although YeePay itself doesn’t have adatacenter (its IT assets are hosted by athird party), it does maintain and admin-ister the systems. This allows YeePay toavoid the hassles of controlling the phys-ical environment while still having con-trol over the day-to-day operations ofthe systems. “We deploy the applicationsand we administer the servers ourselves.The datacenter host manages the net-work connections, the temperatures andother types of basic datacenter opera-tions,” Yu says. This, he continues, “is atestament to the ease of use of the bladesand the OpenPower system.”

“Now, with IBM, we have a total solution: the hardware, the database,the application server and even thetechnical consulting.”—Chen Yu, vice president of marketing, YeePay

Start Small and GrowWithout the forward-looking philoso-phy of companies such as YeePay, wemight indeed still run in a cash-onlyeconomy, with trusted online paymentsnot even being a notion. Instead, wenow have the ability to make bill pay-ments online, secure in the knowledgethat our transactions will be well-ten-dered. But behind every great idea isoften great technology, as the story ofYeePay indicates.

By moving to an open standardsuch as Linux, YeePay can now con-tinue to innovate, knowing that as itsbusiness grows, so can its IT environ-ment. By simply plugging and play-ing, it has become part of the on-demand business world, avoiding thehigh overhead often associated withother solutions.

“As a start-up company, we wanted

to make sure we could start small andthen scale as the business grows,” Yusays. “Our IT environment allows us todo that.”



UP CLOSECUSTOMER: YeePay

HEADQUARTERS: Beijing

BUSINESS: Secure payment-services provider

HARDWARE: OpenPower 720 server, two BladeCenter JS20 servers

SOFTWARE: SUSE Linux, IBM DB2 Universal Database, IBM WebSphereApplication Server, Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition

CHALLENGE: Consolidating IT environment to rely on one vendor insteadof multiple vendors

SOLUTION: Using IBM hardware and Linux to move from SunMicrosystems-based solution

ONLINE: Contact us and get more information about migratingfrom Solaris to Linux: www.ibm.com/linux


Helping Solve Nature’sHow Blue Gene/L is changing research and educationat Iowa State University BY SHIRLEY S. SAVAGE



U nlocking Mother Nature’s mysteries isn’t easy. Just askany researcher involved in studying genomes and find-ing the genes that make up an individual organism.

Figuring out a genome is like being given a huge box of jigsawpuzzle pieces where each big puzzle piece is made up of manysmall pieces. To solve the puzzle, you must fit the tiny piecestogether to form larger pieces. Then, you’ve got to assemble thelarger pieces into the proper structure. Completing the puzzle isa test of the researcher’s patience and fortitude. But suppose theresearcher had an able assistant that could process the littlepieces into the larger pieces quickly and efficiently; you’d beable to see the overall structure faster. Additionally, you’d beable to spot those little discrepancies included in the genome—like repeated sequences. Such an able assistant does exist. It’scalled IBM* Blue Gene*/L. And it’s helping researchers and students at Iowa State University solve one of the most complexbiological genomes known.

In January 2006, Blue Gene/L arrived on the university’s Ames,Iowa, campus and made an impact. Iowa State is one of five U.S.universities with a Blue Gene/L system. The acquisition of BlueGene/L has catapulted Iowa State into the top 100 on the 2006TOP500 list of supercomputers, with a worldwide ranking of 99.The 2,048 processor, 11 trillion-byte machine runs Linux* on aPOWER* processor-based system.

“This is the first teraflop system we’ve ever had at IowaState,” says Srinivas Aluru, a professor in the electrical andcomputer engineering department and chair of the bioinformatics and computational biology program. “It’s asmuch as 20 times more powerful than the next-most powerfulmachine we’ve had on campus. It has significantly enhancedour high-performance computing capabilities. In April, wereceived a best paper award from IEEE’s (Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers) International Parallel and DistributedComputing Symposium for our work on maize assembly using

Blue Gene/L. Without it, wewouldn’t have been able to dothe work.”

The university acquired thesupercomputer thanks to a

National Science Foundation (NSF) grant and allocations fromthe Iowa State’s President’s Office; the Office of the Vice Provostfor Research; Information Technology Services and the PlantSciences Institute.

Once installed, Blue Gene/L, was immediately put to work.Aluru’s group used the supercomputer to examine a large-scaleproblem in computational genomics known as expressedsequence tag (EST) clustering. The challenge in working withESTs is to analyze the large datasets that comprise ESTs. Aluru’sgroup chose to look at the mouse EST collection, which is main-tained by the National Institutes of Health and has more than 3.7million sequences. How long did it take to put that puzzle

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together? “We were able to analyze themin less than 10 hours,” says Aluru. “Sofar, no one else has been able to demon-strate the ability to handle such a largecollection directly. Most analyses aredone on less than 1 million sequences.”

The Linux AdvantageOne of the keys to the superior perfor-mance of Blue Gene/L is the Linux plat-form. “I’m a person who works on thealgorithms and applications side ofthings, not the operating-system side.But that said, I can see the advantagesof having a Linux implementation,”says Aluru. “If you look at the individ-ual nodes, they need a very lightweight

operating system derived from Linux.The rationale being that the machine isbuilt for high performance. The goalisn’t to have a lot of people using themachine at the same time, but to deliverthe highest performance. Linux, beingopen source and very adaptable, makesthis easy to do.

“The individual nodes need to supportthe computation. When the computationis running, the nodes need to step awayfrom all other tasks and let the applica-tion run. I don’t see how this can bedone with a proprietary operating sys-tem or a very cumbersome operatingsystem that does everything but can’t betweaked in the right way.”

The Maize MazeThe speed and adaptability of BlueGene/L is proving to be extremely help-ful in one of the most complex puzzles

being solved—the maize, or corn,genome. The maize genome is estimatedto be as large as 2.5 billion nucleotideslong, making it the third-largestgenome to be sequenced, after thehuman and mouse genomes, which are3 billion nucleotides long. Begun inNovember 2005, the maize project is ledby Washington University in St. Louis,which performs sequencing. Iowa Stateis contributing the sequence processingand high-performance computing workon the project.

A few years ago, biologists didpreparatory work for the project by sam-pling the entire maize genome using atechnique called gene-enriched

sequencing. In this technique, pieces ofDNA are sampled from the genomewhere mostly genes reside. Starting inNovember 2005, biologists began to mapthe genome. Washington University sci-entists are breaking the genome intolarge chunks, known as bacterial artifi-cial chromosomes (BACs), containingabout 200,000 nucleotides. The BACs arethen sequenced, with more than 1,200BACs sequenced so far. Blue Gene/L isassisting with sorting the pieces. As theindividual BACs are assembled, IowaState is using Blue Gene/L to find outhow the gene-enriched sequences fit intothe individual BACs. That informationwill be used to perform better assem-blies, observes Aluru.

However, assemblies don’t always gosmoothly. “Sometimes you may not beable to get the whole sequence—you getit in two or three pieces with some

sequencing gaps,” he says. The researchteam uses Blue Gene/L to do a com-bined analysis of all the BACs to findoverlaps and fit the sequences togetherto build larger and larger ones.

Gaps aren’t the only challengesencountered by the biologists. Repetitivesequences are also an issue. The maizegenome is full of repeats with a shortevolutionary history. Some biologistsbelieve the repeat content in thegenome accounts for 60 to as much as80 percent of the genome.

When there are repetitive sequences,researchers must make certain they aren’tmistaking the repeats as being from thesame region. The sequences could be

similar, but might actually be fromanother part of the genome. “The higherthe repeat content, the greater chance ofthese mistakes,” Aluru says. That makesmaize much trickier to sequence than thehuman or mouse genomes.

Confident the maize challenge will besolved, Aluru is already planning thenext step. His team plans to compare themaize genome with rice (which has 450million nucleotides) to see what genesare common and what genes are unique.

The maize project is just one of theapplications for Blue Gene/L at IowaState. It ’s being used to supportresearch in a number of areas, such as computational-biology tasks in com-parative genomics and microdataanalysis. “We are interested in going topublic repositories, downloading thou-sands of experiments and collectivelyanalyzing and discovering something


CUSTOMER: Iowa State University

HEADQUARTERS: Ames, Iowa

BUSINESS: Higher education

HARDWARE: IBM BlueGene/L

SOFTWARE: Linux

CHALLENGE: Delivering fast and high-performance super computing to aid in cancer and genome research

SOLUTION: Running Linux and POWER processors on the BlueGenesupercomputer

UP CLOSE

new that’s hidden in the data,” accord-ing to Aluru.

Blue Gene/L also is being used forplant-genome annotation to update aNSF-funded plant repository for proteinstructure prediction and refinement;quantum chromodynamics; particulate-cell simulation; nuclear physics; molec-ular dynamics and global-climate-system simulations.

Having Fun with Blue Gene/LAlthough serious research is one of themajor uses of Blue Gene/L, the super-computer has a role to play with a morelighthearted educational task at the university. Each year, the Center on

Information Assurance runs a cyber-defense competition open to high schooland undergraduate students. In thecompetition, one group of studentsdevelops passwords that they believe aresecure, while another group tries tocrack them and now has the assistanceof Blue Gene/L to do so. The processallows students to learn which pass-words are vulnerable. “We blocked offthe machine for a few days to be usedin the cyber-defense competition, and itwas a lot of fun,” chuckles Aluru.

Students arriving from all over thecountry to participate in various pro-grams such as summer school and sci-ence competitions are given a tour ofthe campus, which always includes avisit to Blue Gene/L. In fact, the pre-dominate users of Blue Gene/L inresearch are actually students—gradu-ates and post-doctoral candidates. The

faculty work with students to designprograms and methods, but it’s the stu-dents who most often are working onthe system and building the codes.Having access to a teraflop computerattracts and keeps students on campus.

Blue Gene/L is being incorporatedinto the curriculum and will be used inthe parallel-computing course taughteach autumn. The course includes pro-gramming, developing applications onparallel systems and looking at develop-ing scientific applications. Students willhave access to both Blue Gene/L and acluster, which will be used to discoverprogramming bugs before running theprograms on Blue Gene/L. “We’ll be

teaching the theory of how large-scaleparallel systems work. It’s good for thestudents to actually get a feel of thesesystems. No matter how much theoryyou teach, unless the student can expe-rience it, there’s always something lacking,” says Aluru.

The faculty is being encouraged to usethis amazing resource. Aluru would liketo see more engineering faculty— espe-cially those working on computationalfluid dynamics and molecular dynamics—use the supercomputer. He’s trying tospread the word about high-performancecomputing among the biologists. “Manybiologists aren’t used to using much morethan a Mac PC. I’m hoping to impact thecommunity by consistently deliveringresearch results that can’t be done with-out this kind of machine,” he says.

One proof of high performance com-puting’s power occurred last year,

when Patrick Schnable, a professor ofagronomy at Iowa State and director ofthe Center for Plant Genomics,attended a conference where a fewsorghum plant sequences were pre-sented. Schnable asked Aluru to runthe half million sorghum sequencesavailable. “We were able to do theanalysis and make it available on thesame day using a Linux cluster,” saysAluru. “When you can go back withthis kind of analysis in a short time, Ithink the community will be moreinterested in learning about high-per-formance computing. Promoting thealliance between high-performancecomputing and biologists is very good

for the computing community. Theintegrated work between computer sci-entists and biologists is one of the topfeats of the next century. We need toplay our part in making this happen.”

The Right PathWhether it be finding a path throughthe complicated maze of the corngenome or opening up a world of possi-bilities to students, Aluru and BlueGene/L are helping to make it happen.The university can be proud of theacquisition and for the lively advocacyof professor Aluru.

Shirley S. Savage, a Maine-based free-lance writer, has written articles for IBMSystems Magazine. She also is the authorof several management reports on technology and energy topics. Shirley canbe reached at [email protected].


Srinivas Aluru, professor, Iowa

State University, discusses how

using the BlueGene/L is changing

cancer-research techniques.


The Seamless Enterprise


teve Golub knew he had to make a drastic

change to his enterprise to fit it into a new,

smaller datacenter. As the manager of opera-

tions for Success Apparel, a leading New York City-

based children's apparel design and manufacturing firm

serving Wal-Mart, Target, Kohl's, and J.C. Penny Co. Inc., and

other retailers, Golub needed to consolidate 19 Microsoft*

Windows* servers into seven machines to fit into the new dat-

acenter. He decided to take the opportunity to create a more

scalable, flexible and secure enterprise that better fits his com-

pany’s needs. And the solution he chose not only fit the new

datacenter, it accommodated two additional servers for

redundancy and failover.

With the help of P&M Computers Inc., a Cliffside Park,

N.J.-based enterprise-systems integrator, Golub chose

Novell SUSE Linux* Enterprise Server running on IBM*

System x* servers as the basis of the new datacenter.

Other key components included Novell Open

Enterprise Server, VMWare GSX virtualization soft-

ware, IBM Tivoli* Storage Manager and Novell

iPrint, which manages the company's huge

printing demands.


less Enterprise

s

BY JAMES MATHEWSONLinux fits Success Apparel’s business

With virtual Novell SUSE LinuxEnterprise Server instances running onthe new datacenter, the solution enablesinstances of IBM WebSphere* HostIntegration, IBM Lotus* Domino* serverand IBM Lotus Workplace* Servicesexpress. The combination offers bothrich- and thin-client offerings for SuccessApparel's widely distributed workforce.

“We have found that Novell OpenEnterprise Server running Linux notonly has greater integration, but makesfor a much more secure and reliablenetwork,” Golub says.

“P&M Computers presented a greatproposal and really steered us in theright direction,” Golub adds. “The virtu-alization with Novell SUSE LinuxEnterprise Server gives us tremendouscost and space savings.”

Worldwide CollaborationSuccess Apparel works with partnersand distributors worldwide. Its employees rely on e-mail for most oftheir communication across multipletime zones. Its far-flung designteam sends huge files that mustbe passed through the networkand printed quickly. With somuch international e-mail,the company's Windowsinfrastructure was vul-nerable to viruses,and downtime wasbecoming an issue.

“At this point, thereare not that many Linux viruses,” Golub says.“Whether in the future therewill be is anyone's guess. Theimportant part as I see it, is Ihave much more control overwhat is and is not running onmy Linux servers than I everhad with our previous orpresent Windows servers.”

Golub says the com-pany had some expo-sure to its LotusDomino and LotusNotes* e-mail solu-

tion in the past, but it wasWindows technology-

based. “As part of theadoption of Linux inthe data-center wewanted an enterprise

messaging system thatran on Linux and

Domino fit the requirementsperfectly,” he says.

The company alsoimproved e-mail perfor-mance and availability with

Domino's clustering capabili-ties. And Domino gives SuccessApparel's users hand-held capa-bilities they didn't have before,with a Domino BlackberryEnterprise Server.

“We are in a dynamic businesswith global implications in oursupply chain, and many of our

human resources need to be connectedseamlessly around the clock,” Golub says.“It was vital that in a virtual environmentthat the e-mail and the Blackberry connection be rock-solid.”

A Closet Full of StorageDesign work can be data-intensive.Designers must store large files, checkthem out to modify them and pass themaround to colleagues for review. “Withthe help of P&M, we were able to locatea SAN solution that fit our budget needsand our virtualization needs,” Golubsays. “We choose the IBM TotalStorage*DS400 with additional IBM FibreChannel (FC) switches.”

Because we wanted offsite resiliency,our solution includes a switch and aDS400 in each location with a virtualclustered Domino Server and a few repli-cated file systems on each,” Golub adds.

The DS400 is widely regarded as themost affordable storage solution forIntel* servers on the market. If morestorage is needed, Golub can simply addadditional DS400s to scale up withoutincurring large, incremental costs.

Stitching the Solution TogetherA key way to squeeze a lot of comput-ing power into a small space is toensure that all of your resources arebeing utilized. For Success Apparel,this is done through virtualizationwith VMWare GSX software. Insteadof running one application server permachine, as is common in Windowssettings, Success Apparel can nowhost multiple application servers perLinux solution.

“At present, we still have an amazingamount of capacity to draw on for anew solution,” Golub says. “VMWare'shost-based virtualization allow us theflexibility to still run virtual server on aserver that had proprietary hardware, asin our fax server as well as on our IBMTivoli Storage Manager server. Both ofwhich could not only be virtualized butalso have workloads that allow forunder-utilized capacity.”


CUSTOMER: Success Apparel

HEADQUARTERS: New York

BUSINESS: Children’s appareldesign and manufacturing firm

HARDWARE: IBM System xhardware, TotalStorage DS400

SOFTWARE: IBM TivoliStorage Manager, WebSphereHost Integration, Lotus Dominoserver and Lotus WorkplaceServes Express, Novel SUSELinux Enterprise Server, NovellOpen Enterprise Server,VMWare GSX virtualization soft-ware, Novell iPrint

CHALLENGE: Consolidating19 Windows servers

SOLUTION: Using System xhardware to go from 19Windows servers to sevenSystem x servers and DS400s

in order to consolidate andreduce hardware costs

UP CLOSE


The increased utilization not onlyhelps fit a lot of computing power ina smal l space , but i t a lso al lowsSuccess Apparel to reduce its hard-ware costs, especially its maintenanceand management costs. The results

include a reduction in hardware from19 to nine servers , and reducedadministration costs by an estimated25 percent. That leaves more time forthe existing IT staff to concentrate onnew retai l- technology solut ions .Golub estimates that the company hit

its ROI target of less than 12 monthsfor the new solution.

“We operate in an industry with smallmargins, so any savings from technologygoes straight to the bottom line,” saidGolub. “Because our new environment is so

much more stableand manageablethan before, wehave more time to spendfinding new ways fortechnology to make a dif-ference to our business.”

But cost control isn't the only benefitof virtualization. Golub also benefitsfrom improved manageability of theintegrated environment that virtualiza-tion brings. Using the Web-based inter-face of Novell iManager for centralizedcontrol, the IT staff can manage its

entire network without physicallyvisiting individual servers.

“With our previous Windowsenvironment, it was harder for us to

manage everything at once, likean orchestra without a con-

ductor,” says Golub.

James Mathewsonis the technical

knowledge offeringmanager for the IBM ISV

Business Strategy andEnablement organization. He can be reached [email protected].

“Because our new environment is so much morestable and manageable than before, we havemore time to spend finding new ways for tech-nology to make a difference to our business.”

—Steve Golub, manager, operations, Success Apparel


open-source community has come a long

way since Linus Torvalds developed and then

openly shared Linux*. Now, more and more appli-

cations, development tools and other technolo-

gies are being put up on the block, ready for

developers of all stripes—from a guy working at

home to an army of corporate programmers—to

add to them.

Linux, of course, is still considered the flagship

of all open-source projects, but others are making

their way into mainstream corporate IT environ-

ments. Linux Executive Report (LER) recently

discussed this trend with three IBM executives—

Scott Handy, vice president, Worldwide Linux and

Open Source; John Palfreyman, director of Open

Source, Grid and Virtualization services; and Jeff

Smith, vice president, Open Source and Linux

Middleware—to get their perspectives.

Past, Present and FutureThree executives discuss

the whys and wherefores

of IBM’s approach to

open source beyond Linux

BY JIM UTSLER

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LER: Why are customers now becom-ing more interested in open sourcebeyond Linux?JS: I think there's been quite a bit ofsuccess with Linux, and people arenow saying, "Hey, I wonder if this canapply to other things." So one reasonis the success of Linux, which leadsusers to look at other open-sourceoptions. Another thing is the newbusiness model that surrounds opensource, where you pay less for thelicense and more for the support andsubscription. Those models are gettingpeople's attention, and they're inves-tigating whether the results of thatcan offer them new or better valuethan they've been able to get withwhatever they have been using in thepast. A third thing is that customersare realizing more and more the valueof building solutions around openstandards, and open source projectsare a good way to get broad prolifera-tion of open standards.SH: That's right, because when they'reusing an open source technology, they'reusing something that everybody else isalso using so they can get interoperabilityand adherence to a particular standard.Of course, most business are working in amixed environment, with customers hav-ing both open source technology andmaybe some private source as well.JP: As Jeff points out, some customersconsider open source because they'relooking for cost savings; they're obviouslyattracted by the fact that the softwaredoes not attract any license fee. However,they should do so with both eyes open.Yes, license fees don't exist, but that doesn't mean there aren't costs involvedin the project. So we need to make surethey consider all of the TCO (total cost ofownership) implications of what they'redoing, and the other benefits that willaccrue from making the right choices.

LER: What are some of the challengescustomers are facing when adoptingopen source beyond Linux?JP: Let's look at that a bit. We advisecustomers to look at their business

needs first and not to adopt open sourcejust for open source's sake. And thechallenges here can be several fold.They need to determine how to createthe appropriate combination of open-source and proprietary software, how toassess the maturity of the open-sourcesoftware-how to make sure that thecommunity support is there and it's notjust from one vendor who's actuallymarketing their product in an open-source license-and to understand thatthere are certain things that need to betaken care of with open source, such asconfiguration management and control.With a traditional piece of software, thevendor will take care of this. This isn'tthe case with open source. Customershave to make sure they really under-stand the full and holistic implicationsof using open source in their business.JS: Integration is also an issue.Customers who bring components ofopen source back into their environmentfind that they go through more work tointegrate those things than they mightwith a vendor who built some of thatintegration into their commercial offer-ings, as in the case with the WebSphere*family. For example, WebSphereApplication Server (WAS) uses the opensource Apache HTTP server as a keycomponent of an integrated softwaresolution implementation.SH: I think the challenges when imple-menting open source are the same as

with any technology deployment.Customers should have all of thesame types of plans in place forsupporting that technology that

they would for any other privatesource technology. Once customers

see it in that light, they're much morecomfortable with the list of things theyneed to do to deal with in an open-source environment. They often can justuse the same checklist that they've usedwhen deploying any new technology, allthe way down from how to get itapproved on their standard deploymentlist to then rolling it out into production.

LER: Why is IBM so involved in theopen-source space?SH: Based on our experience withLinux, we figured out that some veryuseful things are developed with opensource and that, often, it's actually inboth the customers' and IBM's bestinterest to use open source in the modeland the mechanism for how we deliverinnovation to customers. From our per-spective, it's certainly better than havingmultiple vendors doing duplicate devel-opment work to create more or less thesame product. It's a waste of resources.But by sharing the exact same codebase, we, as a vendor, can take our valu-able resources and use them for devel-oping value add on top of that standard,whether that be Linux, whether that bean open-source J2EE app server,whether that be Eclipse. This philosophyapplies to every open-source project thatwe've backed. We can share the develop-ment work for the open source and openstandards and then provide more valueto the customer by implementing aunique value-add on top of it. JP: We're also seeing customer interestin open source. And we see a marketthere because customers see competi-tive advantage if they are able to com-bine open source and private source,and we believe that IBM is well posi-tioned to help them make objective,business-led decisions to maximizetheir competitive differentiation fromharnessing this combination.

“Apache is important because it is anopen-source community that proliferates the Web,open Web standards, and Web-applications standards.”

—Jeff Smith, vice president, Open Source and

Linux Middleware, IBM


JS: In keeping with that thought,we've found that commercial ecosys-tems form around cores of open-sourcecommunity innovation that include thebusiness opportunities that John men-tions. It's one of the reasons that open-source projects have gotten the atten-tion and the investment that they have.Linux is a prime example of that.People are selling billions of dollars ofhardware under Linux and middlewareon top of Linux and services surround-ing Linux. The starting premise is thatthere's a core of community-driveninnovation that an ecosystem buildsaround. IBM's goals regarding thatinnovation are to participate in theecosystem in a way that is mutuallybeneficial to our customers, to IBM andto the ecosystem itself.

LER: How has IBM's experience withLinux helped it with other open-source projects?JS: First of all, we've learned aboutwhat does and doesn't work whenyou're working with open-source com-munities. We've become knowledgeableabout the communities themselves: howthey function, how to contribute tothem and how to earn their respect,

which is important for you to be able toget value from them. We have shownthat this idea of commercial ecosystemsforming around these open-source com-munity innovations can be successful,which has lead us to consider more ofthem. And we've shown that customersare interested in this stuff, that alterna-tive solutions, especially those that offermore choice to do things, are inherentlyinteresting to customers. So not only dowe see value from our business strategyperspective, but our customers to a cer-tain degree are also voting for us toparticipate in these things.SH: We've also learned that to make anopen-source project successful, it has tobe repeatable. Let's take a quick look atLinux: We learned that there was a cer-tain set of things we knew we had to do

to be successful in the community,including becoming a major con-tributor, not only for credibilitywith the customers, but also forcredibility within the community.And that can only be done through

real technical contributions of inno-vation into the open source community.

That allows us to advance the technologyso that it meets the needs of our cus-tomers, so if we have customer require-ments, we know how to feed thoserequirements into the technology. It alsoallows us to provide support offerings forthe technology because we're familiarwith the code base and have a mecha-nism to support our customers.JP: I'd add to that. Because we'reextending our services portfolio toembrace open source beyond Linux,we're extending the skill sets of ourprofessionals who already have experi-ence with Linux. We're also used tointeracting with a product that is opensource, so this gives us a sound knowl-edge base to build on. However, itwould be foolish of us to expect that theentire spectrum of open source willevolve in exactly the same way asLinux. Open source is very multifaceted,with penetration into areas such as tool-ing and middleware and embryonicpenetration into the application arena.

LER: What are some of the major areasof IBM investment in open source?JP: Our main areas of investmentlargely align with what the SoftwareGroup has been doing. We're clearlylooking to make sure that we includeopen source in our services portfolio, tobuild on the investment in proactivecommunity development that has beenmade in the Software Group, with thingslike Eclipse and Apache and the othercommunities that we're very involved in. SH: Right now, there are several areasthat I'm focused on. One involves theapplication-server space, which we'vedone by adopting Apache as our defaultHTTP server in WebSphere and con-tinue to do by working within theecosystem development around ApacheGeronimo. We also created the Eclipseproject when we open sourced our tech-nology, which involved 40 million dol-lars worth of development, back inNovember 2001. Since then, Eclipse hasbeen a phenomenally successful project,with more than 800 tools developed forit. And building on Eclipse in the areaof the rich-client platform (RCP) thatwas in Eclipse 3.0. That was really for extending Eclipse beyond app-development tools to supportbuilding client-side apps. So instead ofdeveloping tools, we're developingapps. This is a very important open-source based project for us because thisreally is nothing short of re-creatingwhat we did on the server, of having asingle programming model that ismulti-OS and based on open standardsto provide customers with a more cost-effective way to deploy apps that aremulti-vendor and multi-OS. We alsofelt that there were a lot of benefits tousing middleware on the server, so weinjected client-side middleware into thestrategy and we did that by developingour own framework on top of Eclipse3.0, which is the IBM Workplace* man-aged client.

We noticed that customers had to dealwith storage management that was ven-dor unique in all cases. For example,IBM was solving it one way with our

“What you wantto do is use thecapabilities ofopen sourcewhere appropriate,which probably will be in amixed open-source/private-source environment. If youcan get a little in, get a littlein, if you can get a lot in—themore the merrier.”

—Scott Handy, vice president,Worldwide Linux and

Open Source, IBM

storage, EMC another way-all the vari-ous data-storage vendors had theirunique way of doing storage manage-ment. All customers wanted was to havea common storage-management solu-tion. So IBM took a leadership positionand open sourced some of our technol-ogy as well as contributions from othercompanies to launch the Aperi project,which is building an open-source imple-mentation of the open standard SMI(Storage Management Initiative) backedby SNIA. And moving beyond software,we then started thinking we couldextend the same open-source softwareconcept to hardware. We're now licens-ing the specifications for the Powerarchitecture* to interested companies,and there are currently around 40 com-panies that have joined power.org. That'sone hardware implementation. Anotherone we did was with blade.org. So we'realready sharing the specifications for theblade and chassis architecture with othercompanies, and now there are more than600 companies that are involved inblade.org. Another area that I'm focusedon involves grid. We started gettinginvolved in open source grid projectback in the year 2000, and there was awhole specification that was being cre-ated called open grid services architec-ture-OGSA—and we've implemented thatgrid architecture specification into ourown products, such as WebSphere andTivoli* software.JS: We also still have hundreds ofpeople writing code for Linux fulltime,contributing into the Linux open-source community, porting Linux toIBM hardware platforms or writingmiddleware for it, so the open-sourceinvolvement with IBM on Linux is fun-damentally the biggest. The secondbiggest is probably Apache. I don'twant to repeat too much of what Scotthas already said, but Apache is impor-tant because it is an open-source com-munity that proliferates the Web, openWeb standards, and Web-applicationsstandards and Web-services standardsthat are fundamental to our softwarestrategy. As an example, we announced

the availability late last fall ofWebSphere Application ServerCommunity Edition (WAS CE), which isbased on an open source J2EE applica-tion server project from Apache calledGeronimo, and we even bought a com-pany that had a commercial offeringbased on this technology that formedthe basis of our WAS-CE offering. Wedonated some embedded Java* data-base technology a couple of years ago,and that has now graduated to a full-blown database project inside Apachecalled Derby. We continue to offer thatas a commercial offering calledCloudScape as well as a bundled ver-sion with the WAS CE offering. Andthen, of course, there's Eclipse, whichmay be just as big as Apache ... at leastfrom an IBM participation perspective. JP: The other important thing to stressis that we decided to join up on ouropen-source plans to make sure thatthere are no overlaps and gaps in ourapproach. So that's something that'sreally exciting-actually having some-thing truly coordinated between the threedifferent divisions—software, systems andservices—and getting a lot of benefitfrom bouncing things off each other andmoving these activities forward together.

LER: What advice would you give toIBM customers considering adoptingopen source?

JS: First of all, if you're used tobuying software in a traditionalway, where you buy it up frontfrom a particular vendor and it's

their own technology, then there'snever been any question about where

you're going to get support or how muchsupport you're going to get. But whatcustomers are finding with open-sourceprojects is that there's no guaranteethere's any support at all; that you actu-ally have to pick where you're going toget the support from, because it's oftenoffered by more than one vendor. Or itcould be that the only support availableis the Web interface into the community,in which case it's not going to be aspredicable as you might like if you're anenterprise customer. Support options mayexist, but you have to deliberately seekthem out.JP: The advice I would give is standback and consider your real businessrationale before acting. Open sourcemust never be viewed as the universalanswer to all questions, but if used in theright combination with traditional soft-ware it can yield significant businessbenefit, allowing the customer to inno-vate. If the answer is "We don't needopen source yet because it's really notmature enough in the area that we wantto do business," that's a really goodanswer. Increasingly, however, that won'tbe the answer.SH: In keeping with that, what you wantto do is use the capabilities of open sourcewhere appropriate, which probably will bein a mixed open-source/private-sourceenvironment. If you can get a little opensource into a project, get a little in, if youcan get a lot in—the more the merrier. Butdon't set these arbitrary rules that every-thing has to be 100-percent open sourcewhen 30 percent might be enough to getsome advantage. Take your success andexpand on it. In short, just bite off whatyou can chew and go from there.



“Because we’reextending our services portfolio toembrace opensource beyond Linux, we’reextending the skill sets of ourprofessionals who alreadyhave experience with Linux.”

—John Palfreyman, director of Open Source,

Grid and Virtualization services


PH

OTO

GRAPH

Y BY

ROBER

T N

ELSO

N

reating aommun i t y

How Palm Beach

Community College learned

that consolidation and

virtualization can result in more

than just ease of administration

and lower overhead costs

BY JIM UTSLER

Tony Parziale, CIO, Palm BeachCommunity College, chose IBM

hardware and Linux to help consolidate and virtualize the

school’s IT environment.



Most often, the primary rea-sons for undertaking aconsolidation effort are

related to the bottom line:increased ease of management andadministration, and reduced costsand datacenter space. After all,dealing with multiple stand-aloneservers can be a chore, with theirvarying operating systems (OSs)and applications, direct-attachedstorage and expensive software-licensing schemes.

Given all that, it’s really notsurprising that more organiza-tions are turning toward consoli-dation to ease their IT woes. Butin the frenzy to do so, they maybe overlooking other benefits thatcan arise from their efforts. Forexample, consolidation allowsorganizations to more closelyintegrate their systems to offerbetter services, such as portalaccess to personal information.

So as organizations begin con-sidering or even implementingconsolidation efforts, they shouldreflect on what real-world benefits can be gained.

As Palm Beach CommunityCollege recently learned, consoli-dation isn’t so much about thenuts and bolts of a technologicaldeployment, but how that deploy-ment is going to benefit end users.

Tony Parziale, CIO of PalmBeach Community College, notes,“We have five locations scatteredabout the county. By consolidating stu-dent records on compatible systems,the students can access their data—suchas financial-aid or transcript informa-tion—from any of these locations. Inthe past, we would have had to printout the information and fax it to theother campuses.”

In the case of Palm Beach CommunityCollege, the value of technological con-solidation and virtualization came inthe form of a tightly integrated mix of a

new IBM* System z* 890, two IBMBladeCenter* systems, an IBM SystemStorage* DS6800 device and IBM virtu-alization technologies, such as the IBMSAN Volume Controller (SVC). And sofar, this newly revamped consolidationand virtualization effort has received nothing but straight As.

Leading the PackEstabl ished in 1933, Palm BeachCommunity College was Florida’s

first public community col-lege. As its name implies, itserves Florida’s Palm BeachCounty, which Parziale says“is bigger in land area thanDelaware or Rhode Island.” Ithas f ive locat ions in LakeWorth , Bel le Glade , BocaRaton, Palm Beach Gardensand West Palm Beach, andabout 49,000 enrolled stu-dents who are eligible to takepart in more than 90 degreeand certificate programs.

As one might expect, anorganization of this magnitude,with its many processor-inten-sive transactions—according toParziale, more than 85 percentof its students register online—requires a heavy-duty IT envi-ronment to support its users,who include not only students,but also faculty and staff. Tothat end, it currently has aSystem z890 platform hostingfive SUSE Linux* partitions,two fully equipped BladeCenterservers, a DS6800 with 10 TBof storage and an IBM SystemStorage 3583 Ultrium ScalableTape Library. It also runs aproprietary ERP applicationcooperatively developed byseven Florida schools that arepart of what Parziale calls “theFlorida Community CollegeSoftware Consortium.” Theseschools include Broward

Community College, Indian RiverCommunity College, Miami-DadeCollege, Tallahassee CommunityCollege, Okaloosa-Walton CommunityCollege, Polk Community college andPalm Beach Community College, aswell as associate members MercerCounty Community College in NewJersey and Louisiana State Universityat Shreveport.

This ERP application, which wasbuilt on the Software AG Adabas data-

CUSTOMER:Palm Beach Community College

HEADQUARTERS: Lake Worth, Fla.

BUSINESS: Higher education

HARDWARE: An IBM System z z890, twoIBM BladeCenter servers, an IBM SystemStorage DS6800 storage device and an IBMSystem Storage 3583 Ultrium Scalable TapeLibrary

SOFTWARE: SAN Volume Controller,Software AG Adabas database-managementsystem, Tivoli Storage Manager, SUSE Linux

CHALLENGE: Consolidating and virtualizingits IT environment

SOLUTION: Running several Linux partitionson the z890, consolidating many Windows technology-based servers to the BladeCenterservers and using IBM's SVC to virtualize its storage environment

UP CLOSE

base-management system running inthe z890 server’s Linux* environment,handles the school’s student system.According to Parziale, this studentsystem “consists of everything fromregistration, financial aid, and certaintypes of billing, financials and HR.”This consortium notion of building anapplication allows each school to addfunctionality to it and then share thatfunctionality with the other schools, ina development method not unlike thatof the open-source community.

“Each of the schools has its ownprogramming staff, so what we do isbuild functionality and then share itback with the rest of the consortium.Central to this is a consortium officewith its own IT staff that we havelocated in Fort Lauderdale, whichcombines this functionality andreleases it to all of the schools on thenext release of the application,”Parziale explains. “The fees you pay tothe consortium are based on yourenrollment numbers.”

Because of this cooperative agree-ment, many of the other schoolsinvolved in this group, includingBroward Community College andIndian River Community College, arealso moving to the z890 platform as away to create similarly outfitted ITenvironments. In fact , al l of theschools are moving to Linux andUNIX* to create a level applica-tion playing field.

“The value of this consortiumrelationship is that one schoolcan invest a lot of effort intomoving forward either regardingapplications or platforms andthen share that knowledge withthe other schools. We just happento be an early adopter in thisarea,” Parziale notes.

As part of that leadership, theschool decided to upgrade itsolder IBM mainframe to a newerone capable of running Linux,which would provide more flexi-

bility regarding application and serverchoice should it decide to migrate toanother platform. One of the reasonsfor the urgency to upgrade was thatthe consortium’s licensing agreementfor Software AG for z/OS* was due toexpire at the end of 2006. Consortiummembers decided to approachSoftware AG to determine if it wouldsupport Adabas for Linux on an IBMSystem p5* platform (at the same time,it was reviewing other UNIX* technol-ogy-based offerings from other ven-dors). Software AG’s response was thatit wouldn’t support Adabas for Linuxon the System p5 platform (onlyAIX*), but that it would for Linux onthe System z or an Intel* technology-based platform. “That limited ourchoices,” Parziale remarks.

As a result , the consortiumapproached IBM about running Linuxon the System z platform, not neces-sarily wanting to move to a Windows*technology-based platform, alreadyhaving too many Windows serversoperating in the schools’ various ITenvironments. Based on a number offactors, including the platform’s flexi-bility, scalability and “the breadth ofdevelopment behind the System z plat-form and the tools that are availablefor it,” Parziale says, the consortium(members of which were operating in a

mix of z/OS and Virtual StorageExtended (VSE) environments) decidedto move to the System z platform(specifically, the z890 servers).

“We wanted a platform that couldhandle any direction the consortiumdecides to go in in the future, whetherit was a prepackaged application oranother database,” Parziale continues.The school’s z890 platform now hasfive virtualized Linux partitions, mostof which are dedicated to the ERP sys-tem, including for production, devel-opment and testing.

Continuing OpportunitiesThe decision to move to the System zplatform made, Palm Beach CommunityCollege also decided to introduce theBladeCenter servers into its IT environ-ment. This would help reduce itsreliance on the 70 or so stand-aloneservers it had been using for a variety ofpurposes, including distance learning.

“Each of them had its own applica-tions and storage, so you have tomanage each one individually,”Parziale says. Now, about half ofthose stand-alone servers have beenmigrated to the BladeCenter serverspopulated with HS20 blades, and theschool is using VMWare to virtualizethose servers for additional consolida-tion purposes. Using these virtualized

servers, the organization canalso pilot applications with-out having to buy the hard-ware to support them, a hugecost savings.

At the same time, in July2005, Palm Beach CommunityCollege also brought in theDS6800. As part of its overallconsolidation effort, it wanteda single storage platform, nomatter where the data camefrom—be it the System z890or its BladeCenter server. Tomake the most of this move,the school deployed IBM’sSVC, which would allow it to

“It’s not all about the

technology and saving

money and time, but

enhancing everything

Palm Beach Community

College has to offer.”

— Tony Parziale, CIO, Palm Beach Community College



virtualize storage across all its plat-forms. Rather than having direct-attached storage that may have beenunderutilized, it now has a single vir-tualized storage pool that has a muchbetter utilization rate.

“We might have had a server with200 GB of storage but were onlyusing 20,” notes Parziale. “It was awaste of resources.”

Backing up this system is the IBM3583 Ultrium Scalable Tape Library. Inthe past, backups were a somewhatmuddled affair, with the mainframe-generated data and Windows technol-ogy-based data having to be backed upto different devices. And in the case ofthat environment, backups were takingup to 24 hours to complete.

“Now,” says Parziale, “we put thefour-drive 3583 unit in place andwe’re backing up off the SANwith Tivoli* Storage Manager(TSM). We’ve been able to cut thebackups for our entire enterprisedown to five hours.”

‘Single Cockpit View’Although this consortium is animportant reason why Palm BeachCommunity College decided toconsolidate many of its IT assets,the school had additional reasonsas well. For example, it wants torun WebSphere* on Linux on theSystem z platform to power a college-wide portal system.Although consultants had sug-gested running WebSphere oneither a Windows technology-based platform or as part of z/OS,the school insisted that it run in avirtualized Linux partition on themainframe. In February of thisyear, IBM and the college ran aproof of concept regardingexactly that.

Once operational, this portalwill allow students to have a sin-gle point of entry for all of thecollege’s services, including e-mail, grades, class registration,

messaging and course management.As Parziale describes it, “It would be asingle cockpit view of their PalmBeach Community College life.” Theschool also wants to launch similarportals for staff and faculty, all ofthem using WebSphere running withinLinux on the z890 platform.

“We continue to look for new oppor-tunities to leverage the System z890platform whenever we can,” remarksParziale. This includes moving its dis-tance-learning application and help-desk system to Linux on the System zplatform. Parziale is also working withIBM to move its Microsoft* Exchange-type applications to the z890 whileretaining the Outlook presentation onthe client. “We’re not afraid of attempt-ing anything at this point,” he says.

This includes using its new virtualized-storage environment toimage many of its paper-based docu-ments. This will allow the school to notonly safeguard, for example, studentrecords—which, given its hurricane-prone location, is a necessity, asHurricane Katrina proved—but also makethem available online, no matter where astudent might be. And as documents areimaged, the paper copy will bedestroyed, freeing up valuable floorspace and negating the need for the pur-chase of more filing cabinets.

Something to Be Proud OfAlthough Palm Beach CommunityCollege had sound reasons for wantingto consolidate its IT environment (aprocess that took four or five months to

complete, including a month ofinstallation and testing), it hassince discovered that consolida-tion provides benefits beyondeasing administrative overheadand reducing hard costs, such ason new servers and storage. Italso realized that a combinationof consolidation and virtualiza-tion can create many newopportunities, including effortssuch as the school’s portal andimaging initiatives.

Referring to the student portal,Parziale sums it up by saying,“We’re able to personalize theonline college experience for ourusers so they can appreciate theentire learning process. Andwe’re proud of that. After all,that’s what we’re here for. It’s notall about the technology and sav-ing money and time, but enhanc-ing everything Palm BeachCommunity College has to offer.”

Jim Utsler, MSP TechMediasenior writer, has been cov-e r ing the t echno logy bea t for nearly a decade. Jim can be r eached a t ju t s l e [email protected].

“We’re able to

personalize the online

college experience for

our users so they can

appreciate the entire

learning process.

And we’re proud of that.

After all, that’s what

we’re here for. It’s not all

about the technology

and saving money and

time, but enhancing

everything Palm Beach

Community College

has to offer.”

— Tony Parziale

Mobil Travel Guide

“IBM has optimized

WebSphere* software for

Linux*. Combined, they

provide the high perfor-

mance and low cost that

our online service requires

to respond to the needs of

our customers.”

—Paul Mercurio, senior vice president and CIO, Park Ridge, Ill.

Hennepin County

“It was a plus that IBM* WebSphere* would work seamlessly

with the infrastructure we already had in place. With the consoli-

dation of applications onto virtualized mainframe servers, the

potential for county-wide savings is in place. We have spent an

immense amount of redundant staff time and money licensing,

patching and upgrading all our Microsoft* Windows* servers.

The decision to run WebSphere Application Server on Linux* on

[the System z* platform] has given us a flexible, enterprise-quality

environment that helps free developers to write applications

instead of supporting server infrastructure. Operations can cre-

ate a new server for us within minutes—without requiring us to

purchase more hardware and software.”

—Tammi Kolasa, information technology supervisor, Minnesota

Quotable QuotesCustomers explain the business benefits of deploying Linux

Aitana SBS

“On [the System i* platform] you can manage the resources

and security from OS/400*, and run a high-speed virtual LAN

between partitions with no new skill set required, which repre-

sents an immediate management-cost benefit. We can see [the

System i platform] developing into one of the best platforms to

support Java* applications running in WebSphere*, and we will

be encouraging our customers to move away from RPG to

become more open, and more modern. [The System i platform] is

an excellent environment for serious, business-critical applications,

and running Linux* makes it a great platform for the future.”

—José Carlos Ramos, e-business Manager, Valencia, Spain

LINUX LINEIBM customers discuss the benefits of open source

Conven CorporationLimited

“IBM* WebSphere* and

Linux* are delivering good

performance for banking-

transaction processing,

being a one-stop purchase

from IBM* hardware and

software not only satisfying

our reliability and scalability

requirement, but also with

a major sell ing point—

offering the lowest total

cost of ownership,”

—Dr. Rudy Law, director, Hong Kong



PARTING THOUGHTSOpen-source technology makes headlines

ALL TOO OFTEN, companies greetthe idea of open-source computing as athreat to the way business is currentlydone. One of the challenges faced byopen-source advocates is to changethat perspective. Open-source comput-ing will change business as we know it.But rather than viewing it as a threat,it ’s helpful to see open-source computing as a busi-ness opportunity that needsto be embraced.

Linux Executive Report(LER) recently spoke with Dr.Robert S. Sutor, vice presi-dent, Standards and OpenSource at IBM, to gain someinsight on how to accom-plish that change of view successfully.

(If you’d like to read more aboutSutor’s thoughts on life, open stan-dards, and open source, visit:http://sutor.com/blog.)

LER: Why is it so difficult for compa-nies to adjust to open-source computing? RS: It’s not unreasonable for peopleto have a natural resistance to open-sourcing software, particularly if theygrew up in a culture that was aboutdeveloping and then licensing softwarefor money. Therefore, executives needto be much more explicit about open-source goals and laying down a num-ber of steps to reach that goal. One ofthose steps is a business plan. If a com-pany is trying to move to an open-sourcing world, what are the businessgoals? What will the company look likein terms of its products, the people to

help make this transition, and the rev-enue structure?

Executives need to ask: Is my com-pany currently equipped personnel-wise to make the transition to opensourcing? I’m not suggesting that youfire everyone. Rather, there needs tobe training, discussion, and very open

communication since people can har-bor deep-seated reservations aboutmoving to open sourcing.

LER: Isn’t it all about conquering thefear of the unknown?RS: In the last 150 years or so, peoplehave gotten used to the concept of ideasbeing discovered and then owned. Ifyou go back farther in history to every-one’s favorite inventor and master,Leonardo da Vinci, the goal in makingdiscoveries was to advance the generalknowledge of civilization. Much of thisknowledge created hundreds of yearsago was a rediscovery of what peopleonce knew as well as an incredible burstof creativity. In da Vinci’s time, therewas a lot of free sharing of ideas, whichenabled people to make new connec-tions between them.

IBM very much believes that nurturing

and participating in a strong open-sourcecommunity can lead to a lot of innova-tion, which will help up create thoseconnections and build things that peoplehaven’t previously envisioned. Wheninnovation happens, there will be a lot ofgrowth opportunities for those whochoose seize them.

LER: What is your advice to thosewho are reluctant to embrace open-source computing?RS: View open sourcing as a way forbrand-new markets to be created, tohave new product categories, and tohave new ways to serve your customers.Those new ways might not be tradi-tional, but could be profitable.

We’re living in an age now that’salmost a Renaissance period for soft-ware. People are more willing to experi-ment with the technology and the busi-ness models. We don’t know where it’sgoing. But at least we are creating theenvironment in which wonderful thingscan happen.

Shirley S. Savage, a Maine-based free-lance writer, has written articles for IBMSystems Magazine. Shirley can bereached at [email protected].

Conquering Open-Source FearsBY SHIRLEY S. SAVAGE


“It’s not unreasonable for people to have a naturalresistance to open sourcing software, particularly if they grew up in a culture that was about developing and then licensing software for money.”

—Dr. Robert S. Sutor, vice president, Standards and Open Source, IBM


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