Linux is a thoroughbred in the world of computing and as sure a thing as you can get. With a community of tens of thousands of developers from more than 200 companies supporting the Linux operating system, it is constantly being updated with changes that are shared across a wide variety of industries and with users in diverse environments.
IBM knows from experience that Linux can fuel innovation and accelerate technologies and today at LinuxCon is announcing it will invests $1B in Linux and new open source technologies for its Power Systems servers.
It’s putting $1B on the horse in the front. We think it’s a pretty good bet.
If this sounds familiar, it should. IBM invested $1B in Linux in 2000 in a very visible campaign that included dedicating 1,500 engineers to Linux and an ad campaign that has become widely recognized (He’s Just a Kid). This helped start a flurry of innovation for Linux that has never slowed and helped put IBM in a dominant position in computing throughout the 2000s. It has greatly benefited customers and the Linux community.
The difference today is that customers are already using Linux. Based on our Enterprise End User Report, 80 percent of enterprises are increasing their use of Linux over the next five years and 74 are maintaining or increasing their use of Linux to support the the cloud.
What customers want is to be able to fully capitalize on big data and cloud computing applications, especially in open cloud environments. History tells us that Linux and open source software will deliver.
IBM knows it. We know it. Customers love it.