HSBC has taken advantage of the recent technology
collaboration between Microsoft and Novell to standardise on
SuSE Linux
Enterprise Server from Novell.
By reducing the diversity of its Linux environment, HSBC will be
able to reduce its total cost of ownership for Linux and improve
interoperability with its existing Windows infrastructure.
“The Microsoft-Novell agreement is a great catalyst for helping
us reduce the complexity of our Linux environment as we standardise
our Linux infrastructure with SuSE Linux Enterprise, and continue
to extend the use of Microsoft Active Directory,” said Matthew
O’Neill, group head of distributed systems for HSBC’s global IT
operations.
He added, “Some will be surprised to learn that our Windows
environment has a lower total cost of ownership than our current
Linux environment.
“Our decision to simplify our mixed-source environment with
Microsoft and Novell will allow us to reduce the cost and
complexity. That’s why we have selected Novell as our preferred
Linux partner to support our Linux infrastructure going
forward.”
Roger Levy, vice president and general manager of open platform
solutions at Novell, is joining HSBC’s open source software
committee as a non-voting adviser.
He said, “The ability of HSBC to reduce complexity, simplify
support and increase its IT agility is a testament to the mission
of Novell’s agreement with Microsoft to help customers win.”
Last November, Novell and Microsoft announced a series of
agreements to jointly build, market and support new solutions to
improve product interoperability, deliver new virtualisation
capabilities and give customers peace of mind that Microsoft
wouldn’t sue them for using a combination of open source code with
its proprietary solutions.
AIG Technologies, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Wal-Mart
Stores have already taken advantage of the supplier alliance.
Headquartered in London, HSBC’s international network includes
more than 9,500 offices with 284,000 employees in 76 countries. The
bank has 125 million customers, a fifth of whom are registered for
internet banking.
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