IBM has extended the work it is doing with Red Hat and
Novell in a bid to make Linux and open source software a more
compelling option for IT directors.
Novell and Red Hat have joined IBM's strategic alliance
programme, the company's highest tier partner status. IBM said
through the programme users would be able to acquire open
standards-based Linux hardware, software and services through
integrated sales, distribution and services channels.
As part of the agreement IBM will offer one- and three-year
Linux support subscriptions. The subscriptions will be available on
IBM server hardware or with IBM middleware and IBM Services'
Supportline offerings, providing support for the Linux operating
system running on both IBM and non-IBM server hardware.
The SuSE Linux Enterprise Server will include the Apache
Geronimo open source J2EE application server, Novell said. Red Hat
will work with IBM to certify IBM's version of the Geronimo
application server - Websphere Community Edition - for Red Hat
offerings and Red Hat will also support IBM's efforts to promote
Apache Geronimo.
Both Novell and Red Hat plan to support Apache Derby, a
Java-based relational database that IBM released to the open source
community in August 2004 to help developers more easily build and
deploy applications and workloads that require an embedded
database.
Linux and open source technology has been gaining in popularity
but ease of use, access to enterprise-class support and software
and hardware support are proving barriers to adoption.
Research published in December by the Open Source Development
Lab found Linux users were frustrated by the lack of functionality
of open source desktop products. And, according to Simon Yates,
senior analyst at Forrester Research, interest in Linux remains
flat.
The alliance may improve matters. Ovum analyst Gary Barnett
said, "What is still missing is a fully supported, fully
indemnified open source application server platform."
Barnett considered the IBM alliance significant. "The IT
directors I speak to will only trust a few major suppliers like
IBM," he said.
However, Martin Brampton, director at analyst firm Blacksheep
Research, said, "While the alliance could be good news for large
corporates, it is closing off options for users." In particular, he
was concerned that MySQL, the most popular open source relational
database, was not mentioned specifically in the alliance.