IBM identifies open source software and open standards as critical new areas of opportunity for developers, education and government
Amman, 14th December 2002 -
Open Source Software provides Jordanian software developers with new freedoms, opportunities and markets in the Middle East and beyond according to IBM, a key backer of the global movement towards open software standards. According to General manager of IBM Middle East, Farid Metwaly, open source software also underpins initiatives such as e-education and e-government rollouts by slashing costs and increasing value: “The LINUX operating system and open source applications are being widely used in government and education today because they offer user choice and independence from a single vendor as well as offering reliability and lower cost of maintenance. This, together with the lower initial investment required to implement open source based solutions, makes it an ideal platform for national ICT initiatives such as those being undertaken in Jordan today.”
A number of governments are adopting, implementing or evaluating open source solutions today according to Metwaly, a movement that has led to the passing of some 70 laws in over 24 governments that have been designed to carve preference for open source software purchasing. “There is a very tangible movement globally towards adopting open source software in government,” said Bashar Kilani, Manager, IBM Software Group Middle East. “IBM alone has implemented open source solutions in various places around the world and we are working with governments across the world as they start to implement projects and programmes based on open source software.”
“IBM began investing in JAVA in 1995 and LINUX in 1999. Websphere, DB2, Tivoli and Lotus now run on LINUX,” added Kilani. “We have more than 4600 customers and service engagements across every server and software platform and more than 50,000 customers worldwide using java based solutions. Last year IBM released complete java based development framework platform to eclipse.org. (an open source community) that has today 3 million downloads , 200 contributing vendors and 15 products shipping on eclipse code base. IBM has been leading implementing open standards in its product lines; WebSphere was the first to implement Web Services and SOAP parser. The majority of our customers in Banking, Telcos, Governments and Airlines have chosen Java as their development standard for Web enabled applications because of its maturity, openness, portability and salability.”
The latest IBM success story in this area comes from the city of Schwaebisch Hall, Germany. The city administration announced on November 26th the decision to establish an IT infrastructure completely based on LINUX, with the use of SuSE LINUX on servers and Desktop-PCs replacing the existing infrastructure. The saving potential of the solution is a six-digit Euro-amount. “Case studies such as this are showing governments how real savings can be realised that make a difference to the speed in which ICT infrastructure rollouts can take place, because the savings on software licenses can be used to focus more on services, training and applications development,” said Kilani. “This is where we see a real opportunity for Jordan’s dynamic developer community: working on education and government projects that are rolling out based on open source software.”
“The opportunity is significant for Jordanian developers and service providers alike. We also believe that open source software provides some very real and exciting opportunities for the government, and we do look forward to working with government departments during the OSS workshop in Amman and afterwards. There is significant interest in evaluating the potential that open source software holds for developers, education and government in Jordan,” said Metwaly.
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About IBM
IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions and technologies that enable telecommunications service providers and equipment suppliers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. IBM Global Services is the world’s largest information technology services provider, with 2001 revenues of more than $35 billion. Services is the fastest growing part of IBM, with nearly 150,000 professionals serving customers in 160 countries. IBM Global Services has about 150 data centres around the world keeping thousands of businesses running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information on IBM, visit www.ibm.com.
© Press Release 2002
