Leading Linux Companies Announce Alliance to Help Linux Mature
Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM and NEC Announce Commitment to Enhance Linux Enterprise Capabilities
TOKYO - 30 May 2001: Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi Limited, IBM, and NEC Corp. today announced a partnership that will capitalize on the companies' global resources to refine features needed to drive Linux further into the enterprise. The companies, implementing a shared common plan to help Linux mature, will work together with the Linux community to develop various open source projects.
By working on open source projects, the partnership will ultimately offer customers added Linux features to deploy in their enterprise. One of the first projects the companies will work on will be a serviceability project designed to enhance problem isolation, the ability to quickly and precisely isolate problems in running systems. Other projects planned include scalability, and NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access) capabilities for Linux. The companies plan to work closely with the open source community to gain their insights and acceptance, while delivering simple, modular, high-quality, serviceable results.Today, enterprises and research are increasingly looking to Linux to meet their critical e-business applications. Linux is the fastest growing server operating system, growing at 166 percent last year according to IDC; with the number of users growing from about 1,000 in 1992 to about 9 million last year. By working together and with the Open Source Community, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM and NEC hope to accelerate that growth.
"Linux is rapidly becoming an enabler of e-business," said Dr. Daniel Frye, Director, IBM Linux Technology Center. "This move today will help ensure that Linux gains in functionality and will ultimately provide technology decision makers a greater choice for their server environment."
"Linux has proven itself to be a promising operating environment for the internet business. Hitachi believes it will continue to grow as an essential component for enterprise systems," said Nobumasa Mori, general manager of Open Platform Solutions Operational Division. "Hitachi provides a wide range of Linux servers, from PC to Mainframe. We will also provide a variety of Middleware products on Linux, so that Linux can easily be deployed both in the internet and enterprise environments. Hitachi has experience and many achievements in the enterprise system area. By making the most of its technology and experience, Hitachi is ready to contribute to the Linux community."
"Having been cultivated in the open source community, Linux has risen with remarkable speed to become an Internet server standard," said Akira Ozora, general manager of Fujitsu Limited's Linux Division. "Fujitsu will supply robust and efficient hardware and software components to penetrate the enterprise and public system Internet server markets. In this regard, we consider Linux to be an extremely important enabler of the Internet, and we intend to contribute as much as possible to improving the reliability, stability and scalability of Linux."
"In addition to network servers, the usage of Linux is now being expanded to the enterprise servers." said Hiroshi Katayama, Chief Manager, First Computer Software Division, NEC Solutions,"NEC will be able to contribute to its acceleration by providing its technology accumulated through long experience in this market under this alliance."
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a leading provider of Internet-focused information technology solutions
for the global marketplace. Its pace-setting technologies, best-in-class computing
and telecommunications platforms, and worldwide corps of systems and services experts
make it uniquely positioned to unleash the infinite possibilities of the Internet
to help its customers succeed. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702)
reported consolidated revenues of 5.48 trillion yen for the fiscal year ended March
31, 2001. Internet: http://www.fujitsu.com.
About Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global
electronics companies, with fiscal 2000 (ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales
of 8,417 billion yen ($67.9 billion*) The company manufactures and markets a wide
range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power
and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's
Web site at http://global.hitachi.com.
* At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership
in helping businesses innovate. IBM creates, develops and manufactures the industry's
most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking
systems, storage devices and microelectronics. The fastest way to get more information
about IBM is through the IBM home page at http://www.ibm.com.
About NEC
NEC Corporation (NASDAQ: NIPNY) (FTSE: 6701q.l) is a leading provider of Internet
solutions, dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its customers in the key
computer, network and electron device fields through its three market-focused in-house
companies: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks and NEC Electron Devices. NEC Corporation,
with its in-house companies, employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and saw
net sales of 5,409 billion Yen (approx. US$43 billion) in fiscal year 2000-2001.
For further information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec.com.
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. The IBM e-business logo is a trademarks of IBM Corporation. All others are trademarks of their respective companies.