IBM Moves Key Applications To Linux

IBM Customers And Employees Depend On Linux

ARMONK, NY - 14 Aug 2002: IBM announced today that it has moved key applications to Linux®, including the application that monitors server performance for its worldwide Lotus® Notes® e-mail system, supporting more than 300,000 IBM employees worldwide. IBM estimates deployment of Linux on IBM eServer™ systems will help realize more than $10 million per year savings in total cost of ownership within its worldwide infrastructure.

"Linux's multitasking capabilities have provided IBM with reduced systems administration costs and four times the throughput, as measured by the number of application probes it can support on a single server," said Phil Thompson, vice president, Business Transformation & CIO, IBM. "Moving the Lotus Notes Management system from Windows NT[r] to Linux has allowed IBM to use 75% fewer monitoring servers for the same workload and to reuse previously deployed IBM eServer xSeries™ servers."

In addition, IBM is also deploying Linux throughout its infrastructure for many mission critical functions within IBM, including manufacturing equipment control for a $2.5 billion next generation semiconductor technology manufacturing line, anti-virus protection for over 1 Terabyte of e-mail every month, and community collaboration forums for IBM's internal web portal with over 17 million hits per day.

"IBM is building its business on Linux. It is not a coincidence that Linux is playing a part in virtually every aspect of IBM's infrastructure at the same time that our customers are adopting Linux at unprecedented rates," said Thompson. "Linux makes good business sense for our customers because of its low cost, extreme stability and flexibility. It makes good business sense for IBM for those same reasons."

IBM's use of Linux internally has allowed the company to consolidate workloads, reduce licensing fees and systems administration costs, reuse previously deployed servers and increase productivity for systems administrators due to the higher availability.

Other Internal Linux Deployments

IBM Global Services Web Hosting
IBM Global Services now is employing Linux to support the highly scalable web hosting requirements for several high profile IBM sponsored web events, such as Wimbledon, the Ryder Cup and the US Open. New technology, designed for stock trading on Wall Street, is now being used to deliver real-time, play-by-play sports action to millions of tennis and golf fans around the world. IBM's Gryphon software technology is embedded in the downloadable IBM Real-time Scoreboard on sports sites, like wimbledon.org, which allows fans to access up to 850 facts associated with matches being played simultaneously on 20 different courts.

Used for the first time at this year's Wimbledon, fans were able to quickly log onto the official site and track their favorite player as if they were courtside, receiving score updates customized to their specific interests, such as ladies tennis, within seconds of play and without manually refreshing their computer screens.

Pairing Gryphon technology with Linux, combined with other infrastructure innovations, IBM achieved performance enhancements on the Wimbledon Web site of up to 50 percent. Gryphon technology was developed and patented by IBM Research and is now part of the new WebSphere MQ Event Broker, designed to publish information to specific subscribers according to their unique preferences.

IBM Global e-Mail Anti-virus Management
IBM is deploying Linux to provide anti-virus protection for its global e-mail environment, scanning 3.2 million emails per weekday. Each server is designed to be able to scan over 45,000 pieces of email per hour. Linux's security, remote management, and robustness have allowed a worldwide-distributed solution for ensuring that IBM is managing the impact of viruses.

By using Linux, IBM is able to leverage various software solutions with a cost effective, distributed solution that can be deployed worldwide, but managed centrally.

IBM Client Software Distribution
IBM leverages Linux for an affordable software distribution system that provides client software for more than 300,000 IBM employees worldwide. IBM client software distribution servers around the world make the latest software available to PC desktops and laptops for IBM employees. The 134 servers in 25 countries that make up the software distribution nodes are remotely managed and provide high volume downloads of over 16 Terabytes per month to IBM's internal end-users and PC support personnel.

Internal IBM Forums
IBM runs its internal community collaboration systems using Linux on VM on an IBM eServer zSeries to provide service to more than 300,000 IBM employees worldwide. Collaboration is provided using forums, or newsgroups, to allow IBM employees worldwide to discuss hundreds of different technical and business topics. These forums provide a way to host written discussions on any relevant topic, and new content is appended to each forum as users contribute. The forums are open to all IBM employees across the company. The mainframe running Linux is integrated into IBM's single Intranet solution called w3.ibm.com. This award-winning portal for IBM employees has over 17 million hits per day. The forums have over 15,000 new posts every month and provide a valuable source of information on 800 different topics.

300mm Manufacturing Equipment Control
IBM uses Linux to provide a highly available, distributed, centrally managed server platform for its mission critical manufacturing equipment control. The Linux solution manages all semiconductor manufacturing equipment for IBM's latest generation 300mm Manufacturing Line in East Fishkill, NY.

This $2.5 billion manufacturing line is responsible for the production of IBM's next generation of high performance, low power chips to be used in everything from routers to cell phones. Linux is used exclusively in managing the process equipment for all semiconductor manufacturing at the mission-critical IBM East Fishkill manufacturing line.

With its extreme stability, it is anticipated that Linux will allow the mission critical facility to function continuously with 24 x 7 availability and continuous uptime for at least three years. By leveraging Linux for this application, IBM was able to provide a secure, high availability solution, which can be managed centrally using the cost effective IBM eServer xSeries platform.

IBM Linux Web site
IBM serves the Linux community with its extensive Linux web portal, www.ibm.com/linux. The external Linux at IBM web site runs on an IBM eServer xSeries Linux cluster. The web site delivers an average of 110,000 page views per month taking an average of only 2.1 seconds to load a page, compared to the average loading time of six seconds. Since it's launch on Linux, 13 months ago, IBM's Linux site has experienced no unscheduled downtime.

About IBM
IBM is the world's number one server company and information technology provider, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM helps customers, business partners and developers in a wide range of industries that leverage the power of the Internet for e-business. For more information, visit www.ibm.com.

IBM, eServer, xSeries, DB2, Websphere, and zSeries are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Lotus and Notes are registered trademarks of Lotus Development Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.