Linux lands big bank account - European IT operations ditch Windows to cut costs

vnunet ^

[chance33_98]

Linux lands big bank account

By Peter Williams [29-11-2002]

European IT operations ditch Windows to cut costs

The European arm of Banco do Brasil, the largest bank in South America, is switching from Windows to Linux to cut costs and centralise support. The bank will consolidate 41 Windows NT servers in eight European branches down to three IBM iSeries servers in London with six remote IBM xSeries Intel servers.

The long-term strategy is to phase out Windows completely. Linux is also being used to replace Windows on desktops.

"We had about 70,000 Windows server and desktop licences and eight NT networks serving Europe," said Tim Evans, UK IT manager at Banco do Brasil.

"This gave us a lot of problems. So our objective was to centralise IT support to become more cost-effective and flexible," he added.

In addition to cost savings, Evans said the bank had already achieved a more effective and reliable IT service. Productivity had increased and fewer contracts meant less administration.

In the future, he said, the bank hoped staff would converge to a single skill-set.

The core Windows-based banking application has been rewritten in Java to make it available on any system, including over the web. One iSeries 820 server now runs the entire European operation from London, substantially reducing administration and licence costs.

"Linux runs Java much quicker than Windows. It's the natural operating system to run Java," said Evans, who added that other applications are now gradually being ported to Linux.

The bank is using the multiple-partitions capabilities of IBM's iSeries, which will also connect an xSeries Windows system as if it were another partition.

Banco do Brasil has gone further by consolidating several Windows NT servers onto a single IBM x440, using VMWare to create virtual Windows machines.

An iSeries 820 server consolidates all the European networks into one, linking the six xSeries servers, providing a storage area network (SAN) and file and print services.

Open source Samba handles file and print services and manages existing remote Windows desktops on Linux. Evans said Samba also performed better than Windows. Windows NT system security is set in Samba and passed to and from NT automatically.

A third iSeries server (a model 270) is used as a Lotus Domino server running mail for 250 staff throughout Europe. It also links into the bank's private intranet.

Banco do Brasil has 78,000 employees serving 12 million customers. It has 33 international branches in 21 countries outside Brazil. It has a central data processing centre in Brasilia employing 1,200 IT staff.

[jimtorr]

A real poke in the eye for Microsoft. This should really help the development of Java and Linux. The article mentions software licenses serveral times, so I wonder which flavor of Linux they are using?

[gonewt]

Open source ping!

[chilepepper]

The paradigm shift is starting to accelerate.

Expect Bush2000 to be even more nasty and insulting than usual ;)

[reformed_democrat]

As a semi-computer-literate user who has hated MS OS's since the days of DOS, I am very pleased to see this happening.

I have a fairly recent micronPC running WinME. The machine is fine -- it's the OS that s*cks. Could someone help me get a penguin of my own?

[Cicero]

I'm also running Win ME on this computer. I have Win2000 and Win XP Pro on two other computers. I'd recommend getting rid of ME and going over to XP Pro, or Win2000 as second best (IMHO).

This may or may not be bad for Microsoft. It remains to be seen how Linux measures up, as software and hardware continue to change and develop. But frankly, I see this as part of a third-world tendency to rip-off American technology without paying for it. We do the research and development, they do the ripping off. In the short run they can usually do things cheaper, but they seem to lack the flexibility that would lead to continuing development on their own. Although open-source software is international, it wouldn't really be possible without America as its natural center.

[Salo]

I can see dumping NT servers for linux-based servers, but I'm not sure linux is ready for the desktop quite yet. We're in the beginning phase of dumping our Netware for linux (sniff) and hope someday to go with linux on the desktops, too, but right now it just isn't feasible. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

[Salo]

Try red hat 8. It's good at detecting hardware and seems stable so far, but don't expect to have an office suite as good as ms office to run on it. OTOH, you won't get raped on licensing, so it may be a good trade for you.

[Salo]

Pinging the Penguin Pinger. :-)

[krb]

Try OpenOffice. It's damn good.

[Justa]

"Could someone help me get a penguin of my own?"

Sure, take your pick.

Mandrakes probably the best newbie distro. It's fully featured, and has arguably the best development team.

[rdb3]

The Penguin Ping.

Wanna be Penguified? Just holla!

Got root?

[Brad C.]

I picked up a copy of SuSe pro for about $80 at Best Buy. The box said 30 minutes to a fully operational system, it only took 20 minutes to configure a dual boot system. It is fast, it is slick and it is fun to use. I recommend it to anyone who has expressed and interest.

[reformed_democrat]

Although open-source software is international, it wouldn't really be possible without America as its natural center.

I believe you're right about that. America is responsible for developing the technology we take for granted. Europe has that love-hate relationship with us because they can't afford to do the R&D on their own, and third-worlders would still be living in the trees (the ones they haven't cut down with slash-and-burn agricultural practices) if we weren't constantly trying to make their world a little more like ours (for better or for worse -- we give the penicillin and Brittany Spears).

But the problem here isn't so much our technology that's being co-opted, it's more the arrogance of Microsoft. MS has been using its customers as Beta testers for decades. WinME is one of the buggiest, most unstable OS's I've ever used. Each new patch cures one thing and fouls up three others. I have WinME on two systems here at home (both were purchased within 6 months of each other -- different manufacturers and different vendors), and Corel Office on both, as well. Neither system can run all the features of WordPerfect, but the problems aren't consistent -- one system can access features the other can't, and vice-versa. Also, neither system came with WinME disks -- the OS was pre-installed, but if I want to reformat my hard drive, I'm going to have to purchase WinME to get the disks.

MS offers nothing by way of compensation, other than the suggestion to spend yet more money to upgrade. WinME was supposed to be the answer to the home-networker's prayers, and was, as always, "more stable than" whatever preceded it.

If MS can't come up with a descent OS, at least they could stop saying the latest incarnation of MS-DOS is "more stable than" whatever OS they've recently given up on.

Sorry for the rant, but I've had two Blue Screens of Death today, and I'm nowhere near finished balancing my checkbook. If this thing eats my account information one more time, I'm going to take it out back and feed it to the raccoons.

[TechJunkYard]

I wonder which flavor of Linux they are using?

Since the hardware being deployed is IBM, my guess would be RedHat Advanced Server.

[RayChuang88]

While replacing Windows NT servers for higher-capacity small mainframe-sized server machines running Linux is great (IBM has invested nearly US$2 billion in Linux development), putting Linux on a desktop machine might not be such a good idea.

The problem is that the state of Linux desktop software is still a bit on the unpolished side; there is a huge selection of excellent software for Windows from non-Microsoft sources.

[jimtorr]

the state of Linux desktop software is still a bit on the unpolished side

The more big business starts using Linux, the faster their IT people will polish up the desktop for the rest of us. It also gives greater incentive for developers to port their software to Linux. A number of software houses are in the process now.

Redhat, for one, is eager to sell their software maintenance services. My company has an office up the street from Redhat central, and they say that Redhat is working hard to improve desktop Linux in cooperation with all the techno weinies in Silicon Valley.

[dheretic]

Only one problem with your analysis: Linux was not and is not tied to any country. Two of the original guys who got it where it was, and who still are major leaders in it (Torvalds and Cox) aren't Americans. Besides, Microsoft is a major employer of H1-B visa workers so it's not like they're a "great, patriotic employer." Everytime the word anti-American comes out of a MS exec's mouth I'm forced to think of the war of words between the USSR and Third Reich.

[X_CDN_EH]

IBM's VM operating system, with an additional assist CPU in a Multiprise 3000,for example, will run 50,000 Linux images. That's fifty thousand! Not a typo.

Check the link for a company that ran 97,000 Linux guests under VM.

http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2860720-2,00.html

[stripes1776]

Only one problem with your analysis: Linux was not and is not tied to any country.

You got it exactly right. And now Alan Cox has turned over his role to a Brasilian, Marcelo Tosatti. Many such open source projects are international in scope, thanks to the easy communications of the Internet.

In addition, many software companies are opening developement centers in India and China. Much of the software of the future will not be created in America.