ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

Red Hat Linux: Santa's own Red Hat

By Brendon Chase, ZDNet Australia, 30 December, 2002 10:56

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This is what Red Hat said: Selecting Red Hat Linux as his operating system of choice, would be the obvious choice, particularly for the fashion conscious Santa who doesn't want an operating system that clashes with his red suit. However, before Santa makes a decision, we must look at why Linux, and why Red Hat in particular, can help Santa fulfil his duties. Santa is a great guy and nobody can dispute that. At Red Hat we also like to think of ourselves as great guys (and girls). With open source technology, everybody collaborates and the best software wins as no one company has control over it. With proprietary software the development only occurs within one company. At Red Hat we are like Santa as we have a multitude of elves all over the world working away to collectively to deliver the best for everyone. Why Linux? Linux has a reputation as a stable, reliable operating system that is inexpensive to deploy. It has become the world's fastest growing server operating system and it continues to achieve widespread adoption among the largest enterprises in mission-critical roles. Why Red Hat? We are financially viable - we are going to be around as long as Santa. We are market leaders - we have a global presence, we have strong partners and we have an array of open source technologies including consulting, custom engineering, training, support, deployment and management services. Now, looking specifically at the technology, we have spoken to Santa and he has explained his needs. At the urging of his son, mini-Santa, Santa has decided to gain an Internet presence. Among Santa's requirements will be to set up a website to combat grossly inaccurate rumours about him being a myth, as well as informing kids of the necessity for needing to be a good all year round in order to receive gifts from him. Red Hat Linux, in conjunction with the Apache webserver, which is bundled with the distribution, is the Internet's leading combination of webserving platform. The website is expected to experience a moderate amount of hits throughout the year, but leading up to Xmas, it is expected to be inundated with traffic. Which is why Santa will be wishing to incorporate the Red Hat Content Accelerator technology, that provides among the fastest webserving in the world. As Red Hat Linux supports all of the tier-1 languages of Japanese, Korean, Traditional and Simplified Chinese, German, Italian, French, Spanish, as well as English, Santa will be able to accept, display and print out emails from these languages, from kids submitting their Xmas present wishlist or perhaps petitioning their cause of being good. Santa, being at the head of a non-profit organisation, does not have a big budget to play with. Whats more he is faced with rising costs of unionised workers, competition from the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, as well as the overheads of liability insurance. By virtue of its licensing agreement, Red Hat is able to provide this quite cost effectively. All of the infrastructure and enterprise requirements can be incorporated on Red Hat Linux, such as network management, file and print sharing, internet functions of email, FTP, as well as office productivity. Also, due to Santa's high availability requirements, he may choose to use Red Hat Advanced Server to configure up clustering capability on some of his mission critical services. Heaven forbid, if Christmas was cancelled because Santa's servers crashed. That won't happen with Red Hat. While Santa knows if children have been bad or good, has excellent project management skills, is able to drive a sleigh faster than a speeding bullet, and despite all outward appearances, is in fact quite fit from climbing up and down chimneys, his IT skills however, leave a lot to be desired. Which is why Red Hat is an obvious choice, as he can send his elves on Red Hat certified training courses, to learn about how to install and configure the enterprise operating system, specific to his unique requirements. Elves are like anybody else, they enjoy Christmas presents, and while working for Santa has its perks, they are getting a bit tired of the same ol' presents of toy cars, dolls, etc. This year Santa should opt for Red Hat Certified Engineer qualifications, regarded as among the best IT qualifications, that way they get the opportunity to undergo training conducted by the very people that write the operating system they will be using. What's more this Christmas, Santa has received a huge number of requests for Red Hat Linux from kids all over the world, as well as corporate executives looking to save costs on their IT infrastructure. Santa knows as good thing when he sees it, (he is Santa after all), and has decided that perhaps all his Christmases have come at once, with Red Hat Linux.
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