Enterprise Linux Conference Hits Hub

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IT managers will flock to Boston tomorrow for Enterprise Linux Forum Conference & Expo, a trade show highlighting how Linux and Linux-based data center applications can cut costs, reduce risk and increase the flexibility for large companies and organizations.

The event, produced by Jupitermedia (parent of this Web site), will be held Tuesday and Wednesday at the Marriott Copley Place. It proceeds on four tracks: Linux in the data center; clustered and distributed computing; operations, management and infrastructure; and applications, storage and information management.

Kevin Reichard, conference co-chair and executive editor of EnterpriseLinuxToday.com, said Linux is on minds of every IT and business manager in the Global 2000 — and for good reason.

“Linux has proven to be a very valuable tool for companies that want a solid ROI, and the availability of source code gives larger companies to customize applications as needed,” Reichard said. “This show will give attendees a solid education on how they can use Linux and open source to enhance the computing powers of their enterprises.”

The event features presentations from experts including: Jon “maddog” Hall, executive director, Linux International; Matthew J. Szulik, chairman, CEO and president, Red Hat; Rene Bonvanie, vice president of marketing, Oracle; Jonathan Eunice, president and principal analyst, Illuminata; and Steven C. Solazzo, general manager, Linux, IBM.

Hall’s session is titled “The 10 Reasons Why You Think You Cannot Use Linux in the Enterprise.” A regular on the IT speaking circuit, Hall kept hearing the same reasons why people felt they couldn’t use Linux in the enterprise.

He soon realized the reasons were either unfounded, or, over time, were no longer relevant. Hall’s talk will outline the reasons and refute them. Following the presentation, audience members will be invited to offer their own reasons and have them addressed.

When Linux first arrived in the corporate setting a few years back, it was more of a novelty. While hobbyists turned to the open source OS for its security and performance capabilities, network administrators rarely used it for more serious areas like database or applications management. Instead, Linux was relegated to the more menial tasks like e-mail or serving up Web pages.

But now Linux is also being used in mainframes to power up the application server. At Air New Zealand, IBM recently replaced 150 Compaq servers with a single eServer zSeries mainframe that runs Linux and IBM’s Websphere Application Server software. And BEA Systems, whose WebLogic Enterprise Platform runs neck-and-neck to IBM’s Websphere as the market-leading app server, is also supporting Linux OS environments.

As further evidence that Linux is seen as reliable enought for mission critical tasks, some emergency services agencies are requesting that their dispatch centers run on Linux operating systems.