IBM DELIVERS THREE LINUX-SUPPORT FIRSTS.

IBM has announced new e-infrastructure software for Linux. The announcement is IBM's latest initiative to support Linux throughout its portfolio of e-business software, servers and services and gives IBM the broadest database Linux support in the industry, from handheld devices to the mainframe.

According to IDC, Linux became the number two operating system in 1999 in new server shipments with 1.3 million licenses. IDC anticipates Linux to remain the fastest growing server operating system through 2004, with a compound annual growth rate of 28 percent from 2000 to 2004. The market opportunity for software on Linux is expected to grow even faster, with relational database servers expected to increase from $30 million in 2000 to $3.4 billion in 2004, a compound annual growth rate of 226 percent.

"Linux is seeing increasing usage as a part of basic IT infrastructure at many organizations," said Dan Kusnetzky, Vice President of System Software Research at IDC in Framingham, Mass. "Over half of the respondents in one of IDC's demand-side studies indicated that they considered their Linux applications to be 'major' applications. IBM has positioned itself well to be considered one of the leading suppliers in this emerging market."

According to a recent Zona Research study, 80 percent of respondents found operating stability and reliability to be the most important attributes for customers choosing Linux. IBM is also providing customers with a cost-effective alternative for deployment as their business grows with support for both Intel-based servers and the ability to scale to multiple Linux images with Linux for zSeries and S/390 servers.

By deploying DB2 and WebSphere on Linux, developers can benefit from increased productivity by taking advantage of a write-once development code. For example, a customer deploying DB2 for Linux on an Intel-based server such as eServer xSeries can easily upgrade to a zSeries server without the need to develop new Linux code to support the upgrade. With support for the zSeries and S/390 servers, customers benefit from the unmatched reliability and scalability of DB2 and WebSphere and can benefit from reduced costs by consolidating multiple Linux servers onto one server platform.

Today's news follows on the heels of recent new offerings from IBM including IBM's Small Business Suite for Linux, which includes DB2, WebSphere Application Server and Lotus Domino. IBM also recently introduced the availability of DB2 Everyplace and WebSphere Commerce Suite for Linux providing customers with an unlimited choice of solutions.

Customers can now take advantage of the reliability of Linux on the highly scalable zSeries and S/390 platforms coupled with the scalability and reliability of DB2 and WebSphere software. Grede Foundries, an iron and steel castings manufacturer, is successfully using DB2 Connect for Linux on the mainframe to consolidate a large collection of servers into one, thereby decreasing administration costs and connectivity issues.

Additionally, legacy IMS data can now easily be accessed from applications deployed on the Linux platform with the recently released connectivity tool, IMS Connect. This technology provides customers with transmission rates in excess of 4000 transactions per second and extends the IMS High Availability Large Database solution for multi-terabyte databases to the world of Linux applications. Also, IBM is introducing a new release of the CICS Transaction Gateway software product for Linux, which becomes available later this month. The software facilitates the connection of the Web to CICS transactions, via WebSphere running on Linux on the mainframe.

The new product offerings for DB2 Universal Database for Linux will be generally available on December 15, 2000. The new product offerings for WebSphere for Linux on Intel will be generally available December 22, 2000 and WebSphere for the zSeries servers will be generally available on January 26, 2001.