SAN FRANCISCO - With Linux making deeper inroads into corporate data centers, the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo gave attendees some firsthand information about how open source is maturing to handle more critical business workloads. (All the LinuxWorld headlines here.)

“The question of whether to use Linux isn’t an issue anymore,” says Eric Clapsaddle, Unix systems administrator at Kohl’s department stores in Menomonee Falls, Wis., who made his first trip to the conference this year. “It’s not, ‘Can I do it on Linux?’ It’s, ‘How do I do it on Linux?’”

Addressing that question, the show — which organizers say drew some 11,000 people, about the same as last year — was focused on how Linux can support real business tasks. The bulk of the sessions and keynotes dealt with higher-level technologies such as virtualization, management, security, services-oriented architectures and grid computing, rather than lower-level discussions about the merits and drawbacks of Linux itself.

Meanwhile there were product announcements from a range of companies. FiveRuns and Open Country unveiled open source systems management products; open source collaboration vendors Zimbra and Scalix showed off updated wares; and open source storage companies Zmanda and Cleversafe launched software and an open source project.

Systems vendors such as HP, IBM and Oracle also had news. HP expanded its Linux repertoire, announcing formal support for Debian, while IBM and Oracle talked about widening their support for Linux and open source with services and preconfigured packages.

But the real thrust of the show was around helping IT managers make better use of Linux and open source by integrating it into heterogeneous data center environments wherever it makes the best business sense.

“From now on it’s really all about mainstreaming,” says Michael Dortch, principal business analyst and IT infrastructure management practice leader at the Robert Frances Group. “It’s not about open source vs. proprietary. It’s all part of a company’s business infrastructure. So enterprises need to work with vendors who understand that and ask the question, ‘How do I make my business run better?’”

In order to answer that question, organizations also need to look at other companies to see how Linux and open source deployments have fared in action. In that vein, the event featured real-world case studies and a first-of-its-kind CIO Summit, designed to give CIOs the opportunity to hear from their peers about the benefits and challenges of using open source software.

Guru Vasudeva, associate vice president and chief architect at Nationwide, a $21 billion insurance and financial services company with more than 30,000 employees, appeared on the Summit panel and also gave a keynote describing his company’s use of Linux and virtualization to run nearly a dozen important business applications.

“I’m standing here from a large insurance company talking about using Linux and open source software for our mission-critical applications,” Vasudeva said, during the keynote. “That’s a testament that Linux is no longer on the fringes. It’s really mainstream.”

Part of what’s pushing Linux into the mainstream is advancement of the x86 platform, typically used to host Linux and open source applications, analysts say. While once looked upon as thin, expendable systems, x86 servers now have multicore processors and virtualization technology built into their hardware, making them more capable of supporting critical enterprise applications.

As a result, many enterprises are looking at moving applications off of expensive, symmetric multiprocessing systems running proprietary operating systems and on to the less expensive x86 servers running Linux.

“So the discussion has really shifted to where now the question is, how are we going to operate in this new environment, what new features are needed on Linux?” says Jean Bozman, research vice president, enterprise computing group, at IDC. “Deployment, security and management are more of a focus at this show than they have been in the past.”

Virtualization, common on Unix and mainframe systems, is also getting more attention. Shawn Badger, Linux administrator at Phoenix-based CSK Auto, an auto parts retailer, says he came to the show to look for tools to manage virtualized Linux environments. The idea is to increase the efficiency of the company’s servers, many of which are underutilized today, he says.

Underutilized resources are also what prompted Nationwide to look at Linux, Vasudeva said. The company wanted to roll out new applications but already had about 5,000 servers running at an average utilization rate of only 10% to 15%.

“We had too many servers under management . . . and it took weeks to months to provision them,” he said. In addition, with its scale-out architecture the company was faced with spending tens of millions of dollars to build out more data center space to support the new software.

Whitepapers

• File Integrity Monitoring: Secure Your Virtual and Physical IT Environments
• 5 Biggest Blunders when Building Spreadsheet Applications in Java
• Automating Excel Reports: Five Approaches
• Java: Four Server-based Approaches
• 6 Simple Steps to Disaster Recovery Planning
• Boost Productivity While Cutting Costs with Next-generation Collaboration

View more SOFTWARE whitepapers

Webcasts

• PoE Plus: Impact on the PoE Market
• Creating a high performance workplace with wireless networking
• Harnessing the power of communications to increase workplace performance
• Making data centers the IT strategic focus
• Protecting assets and employees with IP Video Surveillance
• Stay out of the headlines: Detecting and preventing network intrusions

View more SOFTWARE webcasts

Special Reports

• Executive Guide: Virtualization Reality Check
• WAN Optimization: The Ultimate No Brainer
• Keeping Spam at Bay
• Application Performance Management Executive Guide
• Executive Guide: Building a Service Oriented Architecture
• IT Buyers Guide To: Collaboration

View more SOFTWARE special reports