EDS' vice-president of Global Alliances, Robb Rasmussen, this week launched an extraordinary attack on the open source software. At an event in Sydney to tout the benefits of the so-called EDS Agility Alliance — a grouping of vendors which have nominated as preferred suppliers of their speciality technologies to the services company — Rasmussen claimed that Linux had issues with security, scalability and a potential to splinter in the same way as Unix did.
It is not often that a company other than Microsoft or the SCO Group sticks its head up over the trenches to slag off Linux and open source. Of course, the primary target of EDS and the Alliance is IBM and its consultancy arm, Global Services, both very strong proponents of Linux. Only last month, Big Blue unveiled a plan to spend $100m (£52m) over the next three years to build support for Linux into desktop applications for its Workplace software.
However, Rasmussen's remarks seem extraordinarily at odds with EDS' own global stance on the open source platform. In a case study — dated 21 September, 2004 — on the services heavyweight's own installation of an enterprise-wide instant messaging solution, EDS says it implemented a Linux server environment "to ensure stability and security while keeping costs low".
It further installed a Linux-based messaging application "that meets EDS' corporate security standards while enabling communication with users of other messaging software". That application had to effectively service an environment of 137,000 employees across 60 countries worldwide.
The laudatory remarks continue: "Nearly a decade after it was first developed, Linux is gaining popularity with corporate IT departments that admire the operating system for its stability and security. Now that commercial developers (like Red Hat, whose Linux version 7.3 now powers EDS' perimeter messaging servers) are able to offer upgrades and support, the system's affordability makes it a natural choice for high-volume transaction processing".
Another case study — dated 4 January this year — quotes the chief information officer of computer reservations company Sabre as lauding the benefits to his organisation of shifting from Unix to Linux. These include no less than a 40 percent improvement on return on investment.
The inconsistencies here are more than a little troubling. EDS would not be the first vendor to re-tailor its message to service a shift in its business model. However, if I was an EDS customer who had been sold Linux as part of a project, I would be on the phone to Rasmussen as quickly as possible. An explanation is certainly warranted.
Iain Ferguson reported from Sydney for ZDNet Australia. For more ZDNet Australia stories, click here.
Talkback
They say that well established firms always follow the money and thus more self interest motivated. And that in order to get results one needs to go to smaller firms that are still hungry and thus customer needs aware.
I find it amusing that the same study I was the first to mention (http://www.zdnet.co.uk/talkback/?PROCESS=show&ID=20037911&AT=39191533-39020390t-10000004c) in TalkBack about the first EDS / Agility Alliance article is now the basis for ZD's latest article on the subject. Isn't it a shame that ZD just rushed to release the first article with no fact-checking, no response from the slandered linux community, and no mention of EDS's previous success with Linux in Enterprise class deployments. Way to go, ZD.