Linux in Business - Case Studies |
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| Linux in Business Case Studies Archives |
Enterprise Linux: The Installed Base |
The following links provide information you might need to create a business case for Linux. We realize this is a mountain of data. We structured this information so you could navigate it easily.
Much of the material contained in these business cases exist as reference material for "Bynari's Market Survey of Linux" submitted to Linux Today. Frankly, we found it fascinating and hope you will enjoy reading it as much as we did.:
This letter to TechWeb described a rather typical history of a Chief Technology officer who found a rescue with Linux
SouthWestern Bell: Linux for monitoring a telco network
"One example of a large company deploying Linux in mission critical areas is SouthWestern Bell, said manager Scott Young in Houston. The company is running Linux on 36 online desktops and workstations that monitor switches, fibers and call centers as well using the alternative OS on file and web servers." (CNN)
"For example, when Randy Kessel, a manager for technical analysis at Southwestern Bell, part of SBC Communications, installed Red Hat's Linux on the 36 desktop personal computers that monitor network operations in Kansas and Missouri, it was done on something of a dare.
After poor results testing a memory-intensive application with Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT, a colleague had asked Kessel why, if he thought Linux was so great, he did not try it.
"So we took a mission-critical operation and we deployed a free operating system there," Kessel said. "And now we spend a tenth of the administration cost for those desktops that we do for the rest of the 315 we use."
Even so, he met resistance.
"The legal department says, 'When it fails, who do we sue?' " he said. "The IT department says, 'It's not a proved product.' Corporate security says, 'It's hackerware.' But it's the only thing that worked" (New York Times) "Randy Kessel, who operates a computer center that monitors Southwestern Bell's Kansas and Missouri phone networks, says Linux has proved to be far more reliable than Microsoft's Windows NT and much less expensive than Unix, long the standard for corporate computing. "It runs well and doesn't cost an arm and a leg."
Kessel now has Linux running on 36 desktop computers and is preparing to replace four IBM servers with several smaller Dell servers running Linux. Not only is the software less expensive, but the stability of the operating system cuts support costs." (USA Today)
Case
Study: Linux in Enterprise Network Management
Find out how an international chemical company used Linux-based network management tools
to save both time and money.
Retailer
Commits to Linux in 250 Stores
Burlington Coat Factory will install Linux on 1,150 computers in its 250 stores over the
next 12 to 18 months.
"Burlington will run Red Hat Software Inc.'s version of Linux on 1,250 Dell OptiPlex® PCs for office management, to administer its Baby Registry and to handle back-office functions such as shipping and receiving. Dell will factory-install Red Hat Linux software through its DellPlus service on the OptiPlex GX1 computers, giving Burlington the ease and efficiency of PCs that arrive ready to use."
Replacing Windows NT Server With
Linux
The University of Nebraska Press replaced an outdated Novell network with a Linux server
with Samba software to emulate Windows NT.
Biomedical
Research and Linux
Linux is readily establishing itself in the biomedical field as a powerful and reliable
system for research computing.
Linux
Brings Titanic To Life
Discover how Digital Domain, an advanced full-service production studio, uses Linux to
create high-tech visual effects for the movies. The movie Titanic has become the largest
grossing film of all time and has won 11 Academy Awards. Computer-generated special
effects, powered by Linux, were a part of the movie's success.
“Digital Domain and its technical staff were quite pleased with the performance of Linux,” he says. “The work on this show would have cost substantially more if we had not been able to use it effectively,” Strauss adds. He says that the floating-point power of the DEC Alpha running Linux made jobs run about 3.5 times faster than existing Silicon Graphics systems. The Alpha Linux systems processed over 300,000 frames running 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no extended downtimes."
For more information
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?/mentor/980608mentors.htm
http://www.techweek.com/articles/3-23-98/Linux-Bar.html
http://www.ssc.com/lj/issue46/2494.html
Navy's Open Source Security
Project Shines
An open source security program created by a team of Navy programmers is proving to be one
of the most successful high-tech network burglar alarms online.
In
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX, a Microsoft Certified Professional makes an extremely powerful reliability, features, and cost-of-ownership case for Unix over NT, focusing on Linux and other open-source Unixes. The paper concludes with an interesting list of Fortune 500 deployments.United States
Postal Service
"The United States Postal Service deployed over 900 Linux based systems throughout
the United States in 1997 to automatically recognize the destination addresses on mail
pieces. Each system consists of 5 dual Pentium Pro 200MHz (PP200) computers and one single
PP200 all running Linux."
-- John Taves, Linux is reading your
mail, April 8, 1998
This list of businesses using Linux in their day-to-day operations seeks to inform the public about the reality of Linux as a viable alternative to commercial UNIX operating systems. Companies such as Cisco Systems Inc., Sony WorldWide Networks, Mercedes-Benz, and Yellow Cab Service Corporation are mentioned. A description of the capacity in which Linux is being deployed accompanies each company's listing.
"Speaking of platform changes, Cisco Systems may be switching over its internal network of print servers. Apparently, the company's current infrastructure is based on Linux and works very well, but that hasn't stopped the guys at the top from wanting to mess with it. I'm told that in light of Cisco's ever-cozier relationship with Microsoft, its senior management issued an order that the existing system be trashed in favor of a Windows NT-based setup. Word has it, though, that inertia has won out, and despite the order from on-high, the printing system is still -- you guessed it -- Linux-based.
-- Robert X. Cringely, "No Sunday in the Park: Rain Pushes platforms closer to the precipice," in: InfoWorld, February 23, 1998, vol. 20, issue 8, p. 115.
Providing
Reliable NT Desktop Services
by Avoiding NT Server
Thomas A. Limoncelli, Robert Fulmer, Thomas
Reingold,
Alex Levine, Ralph Loura
Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs
Murray Hill, NJ, 07974
We have developed a reliable, stable NT Desktop environment for our customers. The
services we provide include: Standard desktop applications (word processing, spreadsheet,
etc.), access to UNIX compute servers, file storage and backups, e-mail, printing,
calendar, netnews, web, and Internet access. We founded our architecture by selecting
open, standard protocols rather than specific applications. This decoupled our client
application selection process from our server platform selection process. We could then
choose the server based on our needs for reliability, scalability, and manageability and
let customers independently choose their clients based on their needs of platform (NT or
UNIX), features, and preferences. We can now choose between competing server products
rather than be locked into the (potentially difficult to manage) server required for a
particular client application. This created a ``no compromises'' environment on the
desktop as well as in our server room. Our customers are happy because the ``tail''
doesn't ``wag the dog''. Our ability to manage this infrastructure is superior because the
dog doesn't wag the tail either. The resulting system gives us a strong base to build new
services.
Linux Means Business
United Railway Signal Group, Inc.
The story of how Progressive Computer Concepts has turned United Railway into a Linux shop.
by Lester Hightower and Hank Leininger
The Practical
Manager's Guide to Linux
This document on Linux is unique in that it speaks the language of business, from the
viewpoint of a corporate user. It addresses the issues managers want to talk about, --
cost savings, ease of use, support, uptime, productivity, vendor independence, staffing
and training, -- backed up by detailed references. You may or may not decide to use Linux
after reading it, but you will certainly come away with a better understanding of the
options that Linux now gives you.
Linux is used as the operating system for a petroleum Point of Sale system.
The advantages of the Linux operating system (`OS') in POS & Hospitality include the simplicity of one host computer for all users, the cancellation of all OS licenses & costs, the end of non-technical interference in the refinement of the OS and the end of lock-ups & crashes of the OS.
Juvenile Office in Adair County, Missouri
I don't remember when I first heard of Linux, but after browsing the book section at WaldenBooks I bought "Linux SECRETS" by Naba Barkakati (printed by IDG Books). I installed Linux on a spare 486 and played around with it. Still, my customers want Windows, so I sell them Windows. But sometimes, Linux is the only choice. Nothing else will do.
Jay
Jacobs - a 130 retail stores under linux
"We needed to change our systems," Lawrence said. "We had to become
2000-compliant. We've had the need for some time. It was just a matter of having the
resources."
Grundig AG Danish subsidiary Grundig TV-Communication uses linux to develop customized software solutions.
An IT system to process data queries via Teletex was
developed for the Danish Television. A customer can, for example, get specific property
sale listings or require more information about any speficic advertisement. For example,
Channel TV2 uses a system with one main server and 16 distributed PCs. This system manages
200.000 pages every day
Wyse Technology has put
Linux at the heart of its newest "thin-client" product, bumping Java aside as
the best way to power the low-cost networked machines.
The latest terminal from Wyse, the poetically named 5355SE, is the company's new attempt to jump-start the thin-client concept, which promises to reduce corporate computing costs by centralizing computing functions.
OnShore uses
Linux for his main servers
Source: Chicago Tribune Silicon Prairie
"Stelios Valavanis is among a growing number of entrepreneurs betting his company on free software.
Valavanis is president of onShore Inc., a Chicago computer systems integrator with 35 employees. Not only does he rely on the Linux operating system to develop solutions for clients such as commodities broker Lind Waldock & Co., but he runs most of his business on Linux.
Garden Grove: a whole city is running Linux on his servers
"One early Linux user is the City of Garden Grove, Calif. "We've been 100 percent on Linux for the servers since 1995, and they run 24 by 7," said Bob Schingledecker, the city's information systems manager. "I'd love to see it compete on the desktop, not just as a server," he added." ( Internet Week)
Linux Business Applications
http://www.m-tech.ab.ca/linux-biz
Contains a list of companies using Linux. The most notable are Mercedes-Benz, Cisco, Sony,
Dejanews
NEBALU: Niche Economy for Bay Area Linux Users
http://electriclichen.com/people/dmarti/nebalu
