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May Issue of the Taos Newsletter: Linux
Message from Taos CEO and Co-Founder, Ric Urrutia,
and Co-Founder, Alexis Tatarsky
The 14th of June, 1998 was the day we first
realized just what a big deal Linux was. As part of our regular “Taos
Technical Talk” (T3) series, some of our technical staff
had asked if they could invite Linus Torvalds to come and address
us. While we usually reserved T3’s for more mainstream commercial
topics, their enthusiasm carried the day & we agreed. The idea
snowballed & soon it wasn’t just the young man from Finland,
but Red Hat’s Robert Hart; Jeremy Allison, the developer
of SAMBA, Philip Hughes, publisher of the Linux Journal, and Larry
Augustin of the Silicon Valley Linux User Group. Then the phone
rang & it was Intel, asking if they could co-sponsor & participate
in the panel discussion as well!
We relocated our usually low-key T3 to the Santa
Clara convention center, and on June 14th, nearly a thousand Taos
employees, clients, community members and what might best be described
as fanatical groupies filled the facility – along with two
television crews and a bunch of suits from companies we never expected
to be interested.
The rest, as they say, is history. Intel shortly afterward announced
their investment in the nascent Red Hat. IPOs happened. IBM, HP,
and even Sun jumped on the bandwagon.
For six years now, the business world has undoubtedly been rocked by Linux
(and its open-source brethren). But the question of what role Linux will
play in the enterprise IT space is only now beginning to be answered.
For IT organizations trying to make sense of it all, it’s
been a wild ride of experimentation, inquiry, and early-adoption.
Over these past 6 years, Taos has done a tremendous amount of consulting
to clients grappling with the questions such as: What is the opportunity
here? Is it ready for prime-time? How should I best begin to adopt
Linux? What’s up with the SCO threat? And, of course: How
is utilizing Linux going to save me money?
Taos is convinced that Linux and open-source represent a significant
and growing opportunity for our customers. We’ve built our
outsource practice leveraging open-source tools, and we have customers
saving millions of dollars through intelligent application of the
technologies.
In this issue of IT Intelligence, we are delighted to
bring you two fascinating Client perspectives.
Jim Ravelli, Director of IT Infrastructure at Brocade
Communications contributes a significant
article on that company’s strategic adoption and real-world
wins with Linux, as well as his perspectives on the state of
the Linux industry, and what it will take to make Linux “enterprise
grade”. Ravelli discusses how Brocade’s Linux-based
ASIC Development Build farm cost them $225,000 vs. over $1,000,000
for a non-Linux solution, and other areas they’re utilizing
Linux for -- in IT infrastructure, embedded in Brocade’s
own products, and even as a desktop solution for certain classes
of user.
Ted Sergott, the CIO and Vice President of Engineering at PaymentOne provides
this month’s CIO
interview. In conversation with Coco Brown, Taos’s own
COO, Sergott shares his experiences and thoughts about leveraging
Linux adoption in a smaller IT environment. Offering a balanced
perspective on the relative merits of Windows, Solaris, and Linux
for various applications. There are areas where Sergott finds Linux
to be “Best of Breed…(where) it just works better
than Microsoft”, and other areas where, due to the lack of
availability of applications or maturity of technology, Linux isn’t
yet the operating system of choice for him.
Finally, Taos’s own Professional Services
Group contributes a case
study where we worked closely with a software vendor to roll
out Linux internally as a strategic initiative, motivated by that
company’s customer interest in Linux as a platform. Among
other things, PSG points out that not all hurdles are technical – in
this case, there were cultural and mindset issues which were as
crucial to overcome as the more obvious technological ones.
We hope you enjoy and benefit from reading IT Intelligence.
The intelligent deployment of emerging technologies is one of the
primary keys to a CIO’s providing value to his or her company.
Taos is privileged to provide insight and strategic direction to
many forward-thinking IT organizations. If you think our experience
might of value to you, please do let
us know.
Ric Urrutia
CEO & Co-Founder
Alexis Tatarsky
Co-Founder
Taos
"delivering excellence
in IT”
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