Whenever I see an enterprise move to Linux, I am fascinated because I always want to see if the move was done for purely financial reasons, or if there were other reasons for taking the plunge.
Verizon Wireless moved from a UNIX environment to PeopleSoft Enterprise and Oracle RAC running on HP BladeSystem and Linux.
Why did they do this?
For this team, they wanted
- platform consistency,
- lower costs, and
- better incrementation scalability.
Did they achieve this?
Not surprisingly, they did.
Moving from the unnamed UNIX product* to the HP BladeSystem, Oracle RAC, and PeopleSoft solution, the saw immediate gains in performance.
For the implementation, they used a test environment consisting of payroll, which allowed them to accurately performance of the new system, since payroll calculations are time-limited, and downstream actions, such as cutting checks for those payroll recipients, also have a ‘sell-by’ date.
In all, they increased performance, reliability, costs, and most especially, their carbon footprint.
They seemed very satisfied with their choice.
*I asked what UNIX distribution it was. Both presenters looked at each other, and declined to answer. However, they assured me it wasn’t HP-UX.
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