Getting innovative with Linux and JBoss (The Innovation Awards)

Red Hat just announced the winners of its Innovation Awards, and the results show that Linux has a very bright future in the enterprise. I was fortunate to be one of the judges, and was/am impressed by the variety of interesting uses to which companies are putting Linux and JBoss application server.

One of my favorites (and that of the other judges, apparently, as it won the “Innovation in Government” award) is Hill Airforce Base. HAFB is here in Utah, and gave a very candid assessment of both the problems it was having with Windows/Oracle and the solution that Red Hat Enterprise Linux delivered:

Hill AFB needed a cheaper, faster, more reliable system that would greatly reduce or eliminate system crashes, simplify a complicated operating environment and have minimal user disruption. The new system needed to add enhanced capacity for an increasing number of applications and users. Being a part of the U.S. Dept. of Defense meant that Hill needed a system that could guarantee security and reliability. Hill’s IT specialists were also looking for a data center solution that would be transparent to the end user community and allow for business continuity….

When choosing a vendor for the new system, the IT managers at Hill AFB considered both Windows 64-bit and Linux. Frustrated with their current Windows environment [NOTE: Hill AFB’s existing system went down eight times in three months. With about 18,000 users on base, many of whom are doing highly sensitive and deadline-driven work, it can cost up to $1 million per hour when Hill’s systems are down], it became clear to the IT architects that Linux was the preferred solution. Because of security concerns, Hill needed to run security-enhanced Linux that was common-criteria certified. Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux stood out as the only Linux that was able to meet security concerns.

In addition to having enhanced security, Red Hat’s solutions were much more

economical than others. To sustain the existing environment and increase capability, it would have cost Hill a minimum of $5 million per year to use Solaris. Red Hat’s Linux cost $100,000, just two percent of the cost of the old operating system.

So, let’s get this straight: the RHEL-based system cost 2% of HAFB’s existing system, but RHEL reduced its footprint by 25 percent. The nightly load time for the base’s largest application was reduced from an average of 12 hours to just 3 hours per night. There is an increase in capacity, reliability and security, allowing end users to work more efficiently.

Smells like innovation to me.

I also really like Warner Music Group’s use of JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. [Note: In Alfresco’s early days, I believe that one of our partners competed for this deal, and lost, causing me pangs of remorse as I type this. 🙂 ]

The Digital Properties Division of Warner Music Group provides in-house website development services for all of the entities that comprise the vastly distributed organization. With hundreds of labels and artists managing their own websites, efficient data management was a huge challenge for the Division….

The new SOA implementation created an affordable, easy-to-maintain, and scalable system, resulting in enormous time and cost savings for the Digital Properties Division and across the WMG enterprise. Because the Division no longer has to pay for software licenses, annual support costs have dropped significantly. Developers now maintain the system easily, accessing the code and solving problems quickly as they arise. As a result of using open source code, the development team is much more self-sufficient and completely vendor independent. Unlike the previous solution which would stall when too much data was added, the SOA system provides maximum scalability to support the continuous growth of the company. Integration with eCommerce vendors , integration with B2B partners , integration with ad servers and provision of a platform to be used for search optimization on websites has been easily achieved with this solution making this tool the heart of WMG’s drive to take the artist and label websites to the next genration of ad generated revenue , ecommerce enablement and provide optimized search techniques.

The new SOA system also resulted in increased user satisfaction within the WMG enterprise. The streamlined solution eliminated layers of web pages, enabling web managers to maneuver through the asset management system more quickly and work on their sites more effectively.

I don’t know about you, but when I read things like this – with companies like Warner Music Group, Mckesson, Hill Air Force Base, and others lining up to trumpet the benefits they’ve derived from open source, I can’t help but think that now is a perfect time to be working with and for open source software.