Compaq Announces New Linux Initiatives and Extends Commitment to Open Source CommunityMunich 18 June 2001 Compaq has a long commitment to the open source community. Now the company expands its Linux leadership with six strategic initiatives to meet the customers demand for enterprise Linux solutions. It spans from the infrastructure to the edge of the network. Compaq's new Linux-focused initiatives and capabilities include: high-performance Beowulf clustering; a program for interoperability and portability between Linux and UNIX; Single System Image clustering technology for Linux ant the open source community; investment and participation in a Linux lab with Oracle; training and certifying system engineersl; fostering development of Linux applications for handheld devices.
In the meantime Compaq is rather successful in the Linux market.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), Compaq
ProLiant servers are the industry-leading server platform for
Linux with 22 percent market share in server shipments for the
first quarter of 2001 and for the year 2000 with a 30.5 percent
revenue market share for all Linux server shipments.
Compaq has more than 20 years of experience in both
high-performance and high-availability clustering. Now, Compaq
shifts its expertise in building high-performance technical
computing clusters based on AlphaServer, and the partnering with
leading Linux players to deliver Beowulf-type cluster solutions
on the industry-standard ProLiant server platform. The Intel
Pentium based clusters enable small and large enterprises to
build supercomputer-like clusters in the range from 16 to 512 or
potentially more servers (nodes) for high-compute applications.
Compaq's new industry partners, with a deep expertise in Linux
Beowulf clustering solutions including fully integrated Linux
Beowulf operating systems, middleware and industry-specific
applications, are: San Diego Supercomputer Center's NPACI Rocks;
Scientific Computing Associates' Linda and Paradise middleware
for parallel and distributed application development; Scyld
Computing Corporation's next generation Beowulf Operating
System; and Turbogenomics' Turbo Blast and TurboHub for
Bioinformatics analysis.
Linux and UNIX Interoperability and Portability
Compaq starts a new Linux and Tru64 Affinity Programm, which
enables customers to combine the best in low-cost open source
Linux solutions on ProLiant servers with the robust, scalable,
and easy-to-manage UNIX, Tru64. It will offer a broad spectrum
of software tools and services that allow both interoperability
and application mobility within mixed Linux and Tru64 UNIX
environments.
Then customers can implement a mixed environment of Linux on
Compaq ProLiant or AlphaServer systems and Tru64 UNIX with
common user interfaces, applications, and management
capabilities. Additionally customers can develop applications on
Linux and move them to Tru64 UNIX or vice-versa. This can
increase the reliability, availability and serviceability. The
customer has the choice between these operating systems, the
best fitting or with lower costs.
Single System Image (SSI) make server clusters more manageable
for Open Source
Managing enterprise server clusters often is a hard and
expensive task, which needs experienced system administrators.
Compaq now has made its Single System Image (SSI) Clustering
Technology available on Linux and is working with the open
source community to make SSI clusters ready for production. It
treats multiple servers as if they were one server, giving
administrators and application users a single view of the
cluster. This simplifies common system tasks, e.g. load
balancing, server expansion on demand, password sign-on,
software upgrades, and application access.
First Compaq will offer key infrastructure pieces, and then the
full SSI technology. The first components being released are a
kernel-to-kernel communication subsystem and a kernel resident
membership service that also enables more loosely coupled high
availability and load balancing clusters.
Robust enterprise Linux solutions in the Oracle Lab
Compaq enhances its long-standing global alliance with Oracle
Corporation to advance development of Linux solutions. The
vendor will participate in the Oracle Linux Lab to optimise
kernel development and performance. Oracle demonstrated its
recently released Oracle9i Real Application Cluster technology
on industry-standard ProLiant DL580 servers running Linux.
Linux Accreditation Program
To meet the growing demand for qualified Linux system engineers,
Compaq adds an Accredited Systems Engineer (ASE) certification
level for Linux to its Accredited Professionals Programm (CAPP).
It aligns the certification requirements with partners Red Hat
and SAIR with plans underway to include Linux Professional
Institute (LPI). Compaq Accredited Professionals are trained to
plan, deploy, troubleshoot and maintain their company's systems
and solutions. They include Compaq customers, authorised
resellers, service providers and integration specialists, plus
information-management personnelresponsible for Compaq solutions and systems.
New Linux applications for handheld devices within a developers
contest
To drive development and adoption of Linux applications on
handheld devices such as the Compaq iPAQ, Compaq announced an
application development contest for handheld devices. A number
of contest winners including one grand prize winner will be
announced at Linux World in August 2001.
Proliant Beowulf partnerships:
http://www.compaq.com/solutions/enterprise/HPC_linux_clusters.html
Tru64 Linux Affinity Program:
Uwe Harms |
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