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July 21, 2008 8:53 PM PDT

IBM continues to feed Novell with Cognos rollout on Suse Linux

by Matt Asay
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IBM has long looked to Novell to serve as a buffer to Red Hat's growing dominance.

Years ago, IBM invested $50 million in Novell. More recently, IBM selected Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise for its Cognos 8 mainframe debut. A Red Hat Enterprise Linux version is planned for the future.

The choice of Linux was easy: 20 percent of IBM's System z growth stems from Linux, and Linux is easier to develop. According to an article in SearchEnterpriseLinux.com:

Cognos was able to fast-track porting the application to System z because it was already available for IBM Systems p and x and because it's faster to make changes to open source code...

This won't offer Novell much of a lead over Red Hat, but it's a signal that Red Hat has real competition again.

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay.
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by ewriter21 July 22, 2008 6:37 AM PDT
It is pretty well known that the vast majority of Linux on Series Z has been SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and that Red Hat has only made a concerted effort in the last year or two to pursue the mainframe market with much focus. I don't think you're seeing IBM / Cognos choosing sides. You're seeing them wisely go to market where they have the largest opportunity.
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About The Open Road

Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to the Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is general manager of the Americas division and vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.

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