IBM Executive: Open Movement Will Transform e-Business

ARMONK, NY -- (INTERNET WIRE) -- 01/30/2002 -- In a keynote speech today at LinuxWorld in New York, a senior IBM official predicted that the innovation of Linux and the open movement will transform e-business, ending forever the days when vendors can use a proprietary platform to retain control over customers.

As Linux gathers steam with businesses in a variety of industries, the next major open technology to drive e-business will be grid computing, said William M. Zeitler, senior vice president and group executive of IBM Server Group. "The Internet began as a platform for communicating, but going forward it will evolve into a platform for computing -- grid computing."

Open grid computing will connect computing resources worldwide over the Internet and enable computing on tap, e-business on demand, Zeitler said.

He credited the open community for revolutionizing the industry. "For decades, the proprietary model of computing has defined the computer industry. That day is over, and those who don't realize it's over are on the wrong side of history," Zeitler said.

"The growing importance of Linux as a server operating environment has been a clear finding of IDC's system software studies conducted in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2001," said Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's vice president of system software research. "IBM is clearly responding to customer needs by throwing its weight behind this platform as it sees increasing use in important applications throughout the enterprise."

IBM is now engaged with more than 2,500 Linux customers worldwide, with solutions ranging from Web serving to some of the largest supercomputers in the world doing genomic analysis.