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Dell, SAP to Push Unix-to-Linux Migrations

Server maker Dell and enterprise application software provider SAP announced last week that they would be partnering to chase after the vast installed base of Unix servers around the world with a collection of Dell PowerEdge servers, open source Linux operating systems, and SAP applications. Dell has been trying to convince many enterprise Unix customers, which have plenty of 32-bit applications, that they can save a lot of money moving to 32-bit Linux and Windows boxes. SAP applications are supported in the 32-bit mode on Linux and Windows boxes as well as 64-bit mode on Unix machines, and the full 64-bit support is only really important for the largest enterprises and their very large databases. Dell iron is good enough for the midrange companies, which might opt for the MySAP suite.

As part of the alliance, Dell will be expanding its generic Unix migration services to include specific migration assessments and planning services for customers running SAP on Unix, so these customers can figure out what hardware and software they will need to make the jump. After performing the migration, Dell's services unit will provide support, in conjunction with SAP, into Dell accounts. The two companies are going to offer pre-sales support for customers in competency centers located in Austin, Texas (near Dell's headquarters), in Walldorf, Germany (where SAP is located), and in Kawasaki City, Japan.

Over 50,000 NT Servers Migrated to Linux in Q1, 330,000 to Go for 2004

According to estimates by IBM, over 50,000 Windows NT servers worldwide were migrated to one or another Linux platform in the first three months of 2004. Scott Handy, vice president in charge of Big Blue's Linux strategy and marketing, says that IBM has stepped up the number of business partners that have been trained and certified to perform such migrations. By mid-March, IBM had 45 partners, and is adding around five per week throughout early 2004. IBM wants to add as many partners as it can in this area, because, at the end of this year, Microsoft will end services and support for the approximately two million Windows NT servers still running in the world. This is obviously a big target that all Linux vendors--be they hardware and services companies like IBM, commercial Linux distributors, or Linux application providers--are chasing pretty hard. Handy says IBM estimates that about 760,000 servers in the Windows NT base will be migrated to Windows 2003, Linux, or another platform in 2004, and IBM believes that about half of the machines that move will go to Linux. So that's 50,000 down and 330,000 to go. Presumably, the remaining 1.2 million or so Windows NT 4.0 shops are just going to sit tight with their machines and not worry about support.

Former Microsoft Hotshot Founds Linux Startup

The industry tongues are wagging now that Paul Maritz, one of the key Microsoft executives from a few years ago who helped steer the development and marketing of Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 2000, and a slew of key Microsoft applications, has founded his own Linux startup. Maritz has founded a company called Pi Team, which is not interested in geometry, but in application software initially targeted at the Linux platform for creating, sharing, and storing "personal information" The letters "Pi" are clearly short for "personal information," but the question now is whether Maritz is going to create something broad that competes with Office (which he helped Microsoft bring to market) or whether he is working on something small-scale. Pi Team intends to distribute its programs as both open source and closed source products, and will undoubtedly end up supporting one variant of Windows, it not many.

Scalix Rakes in Another $6 Million in Venture Capital

E-mail messaging and calendaring software maker Scalix announced last week that it has secured $6 million in venture capital investment from Mohr Davidow Ventures. The Scalix messaging products run on Linux and are based on Hewlett-Packard's OpenMail software, which Scalix has licensed from HP and has modified to run on Linux. As part of the investment in Scalix, MDV gets to put one of its general partners on the Scalix board of directors, and has chosen Sam Jadallah, who used to be vice president of Microsoft's worldwide enterprise sales, as its representative. The Scalix product is aimed at providing messaging and calendaring for companies with 100 employees up to hundreds of thousands of employees. It is made to scale, as the name of the company implies. The MDV investment brings the total outside investment in Scalix to $19.2 million. The company says that it will use the latest round of funding for new geographies where computing is not as established as it is in the Western economies, and Linux growth is going up like a rocket.

IBM Ships Red Hat With pSeries, iSeries Power Servers

As it promised it would do several weeks ago, IBM this week will begin shipping licenses to Red Hat's Enterprise Linux AS operating system to customers who want to have it shipped concurrently with their Power-based pSeries or iSeries servers. IBM is shipping Red Hat Enterprise Linux V3 with a one-year support contract at a standard (9 to 5) or premium (24/7) support level. IBM will ship the Red Hat license with pSeries 630, 650, 655, 670, and 690 servers, all of which use 64-bit Power4 or Power4+ processors. The Linux license can also be shipped with any S-Star or Power4 iSeries machine (Models 270, 800, 810, 820, 825, 830, 840, 870, and 890) and presumably will also be available for the new Power5-based Model 520 and 570 servers when they start shipping on June 11.

IBM also announced that the Red Hat licenses it sells for iSeries machines will be sold at a discounted level on the iSeries box. The standard license will cost $1,295, down 35 percent from the current IBM price of $1,992. The price of Red Hat Linux with a premium support contract was cut to $1,995, down 33 percent from the $2,998 price tag before the announcement. This looks like IBM is simply charging customers for Linux at its cost after a reseller discount it undoubtedly negotiated with Red Hat.

April Sets New Record for Number of Security Alerts

The number of security alerts issued in April 2004 set a new record, according to Threat Focus, a Tustin, California, company that monitors vulnerability alerts and patches for more than 1,600 software products and operating systems. Major security alerts from Microsoft, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, all the major Linux distributors, and several other large network and computer system vendors helped to put April in the books with the highest number of security alerts for one month. The record-breaking month of April, which Threat Focus announced three days before the month was even over, displaced September 2003 for having the most security alerts. Microsoft issued eight alerts for security holes in all major versions of Windows, as well as Exchange, SQL Server, and other products.