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Red Hat Adds to Training and Certification

As Novell demonstrated so clearly with the success of its NetWare operating system in the 1990s, there are three keys to making money with operating systems. 1. Sell the operating system. 2. Sell training. 3. Sell companies on the idea that they need certified professionals to run their systems, and control that certification process. This strategy has been copied by Microsoft with its Windows server platform, and both Novell and rival Red Hat want to use the same strategy to make money as Linux comes of age in the data center.

To that end, Red Hat launched the Red Hat Certified Engineer program in January 1999 and beefed it up with a Red Hat Certified Technician certification in November 2002. In late June, the company extended these certifications with a higher level called Red Hat Certified Architect. The RHCA has a five-course curriculum, with each course taking four days to complete. The courses cover security and network Services, deployment and systems management, directory services and authentication, storage management, and system monitoring and performance tuning. The five courses cost $14,690, which means you should probably try to get your boss to pay for it. The RHCA requires that students already have the RHCE certification.

OSDL Says It Has 22 Member Companies Supporting CGL

Open Source Development Labs, the organization that employs Linux creator Linus Torvalds and that is becoming the central hub for Linux and related open source development projects, has announced that 22 companies are supporting the Carrier-Grade Linux initiative that seeks to make a ruggedized version of Linux available to telecom equipment makers and other service providers who have up until now preferred to use Unix.

ODSL, which was founded in 2000 by Computer Associates, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and NEC, formed the Carrier-Grade Linux working group in 2001. Stuart Cohen, CEO of ODSL, says that in the past year Linux has moved up alongside Unix to become a tier one platform for telecom companies and network equipment providers. The main reasons seem to be that the open source nature of Linux makes it more responsive to the changes that companies need to implement in Linux for their equipment and it reduces the overall cost of telecom equipment--something that is helping fuel a revival in telecom spending.

IBM Offers BladeCenter Promotion

If you are thinking of buying one of IBM's BladeCenter blade servers, you might be interested in a special promotion Big Blue is running. If you buy a BladeCenter chassis, which holds fourteen of IBM's HS20 two-way Xeon DP blade servers, before September 20 through IBM's online store, you can get that chassis at half price. The chassis normally costs $2,789 when ordered over IBM's U.S. Web store. While this 50 percent price cut is great, finding the deal on the IBM store is not so easy. But here is the link, if you are interested.

Microsoft Strongly Hints at Linux Support in Virtual Server 2005

According to a report in our sister publication, The Windows Observer, companies should be able to run X86-based Linux, Unix, and NetWare operating systems on their Wintel machines using new virtualization software that Microsoft expects to ship later this year. Microsoft Virtual Server 2005, which was made available for download in Release Candidate form recently, will come in standard and enterprise versions and will "run most major X86 operating systems," Microsoft says, although the software will be optimized for Microsoft Windows server operating systems. To find out more about Virtual Server 2005, read our full coverage of the first RC, which is a limbo state created by Microsoft between beta and commercial release.

Signiant Makes Mobilize Remote Data Management Suite Available for SuSE Linux

Signiant, a company that was spun out of Nortel Networks in August 2000 as a specialist in data extraction and loading software, announced this week that its Mobilize middleware software is now available on Novell's SuSE Linux. Mobilize is remote data management software that profiles data stored on systems that are remote from the data center (such as in satellite offices), sets policies for backing up data not being used, and consolidates data (when appropriate) into central systems, where it can be better managed and archived onto tape. Mobilize was already supported on the Solaris and HP-UX Unix variants, as well as on Red Hat Linux, and Microsoft Windows 2000 and 2003. The company has also announced support for IBM's AIX Unix variant. By adding support for AIX and SuSE, Signiant has covered most of the bases in the data center.

Key Hosts IBM, SteelEye On Demand-Linux Seminar

IBM's vice president of technology/strategy, Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, is the main speaker during a Web cast titled "Pathways to the On Demand World." Wladawsky-Berger will provide insight into advancing technology and how it underlies the critical infrastructure of modern society. Discussions will also cover continuous enterprise operations through the use of storage consolidation, virtualization, LPAR and other key infrastructure elements to ensure data and application availability. Additional speakers include Paul Adams, president and CEO of SteelEye, and Lief Morin, president of Key Information Systems. The one-hour presentation begins at 10 a.m. PDT on July 15. Registration is required, which you can do on this site.

Aberdeen Reveals Supply Chain Myths

In the context of supply chain operations, analysts at Aberdeen Group have something they call the Fulfillment Solution Framework, which is designed to sort through technologies that are relevant to fulfillment operations. In explaining what the framework accomplishes, Aberdeen focuses on four interrelated areas--coordinating, planning, executing, and analyzing--and warns that concentration in anything less than all four is a recipe for disaster because each impacts the others. In other words, failure in one area brings failure to all. Tom Ryan, vice president of value chain research at Aberdeen, commented last week in the company newsletter about several myths that he believes are being promoted by "magic bullet" solutions. If you are hearing these talked about around the meeting table, it's time to raise a red flag.

Myth: Improved supply chain visibility diminishes the requirement for excellent planning. Reality: Better supply chain transparency will help identify operational glitches and recurring problems. However, because visibility systems compare actual events against plans, if plans are amiss, the result will be a flood of exception alerts that will cause chaos.

Myth: Distribution center efficiency is all about execution. Reality: Companies invest substantial sums in distribution center execution systems to improve productivity, which leads to repeating inefficient processes. By running frequent review processes and supporting technology to identify when the facility is going out of kilter, it is possible to re-evaluate work areas and re-slot products as justified by potential productivity gains.

EPCglobal Establishes First-Generation Standards for RFID Tags

Companies eager to start their radio frequency identification (RFID) pilot projects will be glad to hear that EPCglobal has finalized its first-generation electronic product code (EPC) standards. While many manufacturers and distributors that do business with Wal-Mart, the Department of Defense, or Albertson's have already started testing RFID technologies in order to meet fast-approaching deadlines, the finalization of standards for the Class 0 and Class 1 type RFID tags is a good thing. "This is an important milestone for the EPCglobal community," said Michael Di Yeso, president and chief operating officer of the Uniform Code Council and interim president of its EPCglobal subsidiary. "Organizations can feel confident in adopting and piloting EPC technologies built to EPCglobal Class 0 and Class 1 standards today to meet industry deadlines and improve their business." EPCglobal's next goal is development of the UHF Gen 2 specification for RFID readers. The organization says a working draft of this spec will be published this summer, and a UHF Gen 2 standard will be finalized by the end of the year.