IBM Linux Head Says Savings Real

THE New Zealand government could save millions of dollars a year using open source software, says IBM’s global head of public sector Linux sales.

Mary Ann Fisher says IBM is pushing an open standards and open source approach for public sector customers, but one tied to proprietary software as well.

Ms Fisher was in Wellington last week to speak at a seminar organised by Govis, an association of government IT managers. She encouraged them to keep trialling and using Linux and other open source software.

Worldwide, she says IBM has seen “real savings from putting open source into government architecture”.

Savings come from lower license fees and maintenance costs, as well as more innovation and better applications being produced by government departments.

She says the British government has saved about GBP 2.3 billion since switching to a Linux-based procurement system.

“Anything you can do with software today you can do with Linux and open source technology and save money.”

Open source software is also now a viable alternative on the desktop, she says, recommending governments use both Linux and “proprietary” software together on their PCs.

She estimates less than 2 per cent of organisations can currently benefit from a “complete stack” approach, whereby they fully migrate to open source applications.

There are still issues with migrating applications, interoperability and staff resistance to change.

Ms Fisher says IBM isn’t cannabalising the Unix market as Linux sales grow, and this year almost as much will be spent porting Microsoft applications to Linux as Unix ones. Worldwide, Unix and Microsoft products ported to Linux both generate about US$1 billion in revenue, she says.

IBM still sees a place for its variant of Unix, Aix, and currently earns more from it than from Linux.

The State Services Commission last week released a paper advising government departments on open sources licenses.

The Green Party has blasted the paper, saying it’s intended to scare government IT managers away from open source.

The report was prepared by law firm Chapman Tripp, which the Green Party says has done extensive work for Microsoft in the past.