Linux ideal for developing countries, says IBM

Richard Voaden, IBM north region Linux software sales manager, says reliability, resilience, security and low acquisition cost are some of the reasons that Linux is a good choice anywhere in the world, but particularly in developing countries.

With SA part of the developing world, Voaden says Linux is suited to local conditions. "You have lots of priorities in terms of delivering services and there is a limited amount of budget to do that, so Linux will enable more to be developed for the budget that is available."

Voaden says this applies to all countries, but in a developing country it means that business can consider all the opportunities that e-business has to offer, and leapfrog ahead to the latest technologies that Linux can offer at a much lower cost than other operating systems. He cites India as an example of a developing country where Linux is becoming increasingly popular, with around 10% of new computers being supplied with Linux. "The trend is for Linux skills and Linux adoption."

It is not only in developing countries that Linux is making an impact. "We are seeing a significant uptake of Linux in the small and medium enterprise (SME) space," says Voaden. He explains that smaller businesses are typically not bound by worldwide corporate strategies and are able to take advantage of any value proposition they see.

"In the UK, we are seeing SMEs going across to Linux and that`s presenting quite a few opportunities for IBM."

Voaden says IBM spends millions of dollars to ensure its software and hardware is optimised for Linux. "Users can run IBM technology in the Linux environment with a very high degree of confidence, knowing we can support you on that platform.

"Although Linux is maturing rapidly," says Voaden, "it still isn`t an operating system you would use for everything today. We appreciate it has its place."

However, he points out that it is particularly suited to telecommunication companies (telcos) and institutions of learning. "Putting networks onto Linux servers is a huge value proposition for telcos because they know if a node in the network fails, Linux will instantly kick off another node and pick up that workload."

He says Linux has been used across academia for some time simply because it is cheap and for that reason IBM is being asked to supply Linux systems to many schools in the UK.

"I hope that when I come back to SA in six months, I will see the current level of interest generating more traction in terms of real projects deployed."