Although software maker Oracle Corp. has been selling its database applications for Linux in recent years, the latest deal marks the first time all three companies have partnered to sell a powerful, certified, out-of-the-box configuration aimed at taking on Unix systems in the enterprise.

"This is an evolutionary refinement of their market," said Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass. For users, the new Intel-based systems are being touted as equaling the performance of Unix midrange systems at a lower cost. "That is certainly going to be attractive to people who are already Dell or Oracle customers who need that kind of capacity," he said.

"It's not the end of the journey, but it's an important mile marker" in the progression of Linux into business computing, Kusnetzky said.

Bill Claybrook, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston, said the alliance of the three companies will help each of them gain credibility as Linux continues to take hold in the marketplace.

"For Red Hat, it's a good way for (it) to get into the enterprise with big partners and sell its Advanced Server" operating system, Claybrook said. For Dell, the partnership will help the company continue its push to replace Unix machines with Linux machines. And for Oracle, the deal will help as it moves ahead with a strategy of moving into the less-costly industry-standard hardware arena, he said.

For customers, running the Oracle database with Raleigh, N.C.-based Red Hat's software using Dell hardware will offer a price/performance advantage compared with more expensive RISC-based Unix systems, Claybrook said.

"It will definitely be something for (customers) to look at," he said. In most cases, a customer can buy four four-way Dell servers running Oracle and Linux for less than a 12-way or 16-way RISC Unix system, he said. "There's a pretty hefty savings there."

Charles King, an analyst at Sageza Group Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., said the deal could help Dell gain popularity with small and midsize companies looking for affordable database configurations. For larger enterprises, in-house custom builds may be a better answer than prepackaged hardware and software, he said.

The partnership of the three companies will offer certified Dell PowerEdge servers with preinstalled and enterprise-ready versions of Oracle9i Database Release 2 and Red Hat Advanced Server starting at $11,900 per node, including a PowerEdge 6400 server with a single processor, 1GB of RAM and four 36GB hard drives.

In coming months, Dell will also offer certified configurations of its hardware for Oracle9i Real Application Clusters, which will allow users to run the database across multiple servers for load balancing, fail-over support and greater scalability.

An average configuration including two two-way nodes, 360GB of storage and a storage array will cost about $100,000, while a typical high-end configuration with four four-way nodes, 1TB of storage, multiple switches and a storage array will be priced at about $345,000, according to Dell.

LINUX   Recent Headlines Linux move by Dell, Red Hat, Oracle aims for enterprise Oracle gives Linux on Intel a boost German government adopts Linux in IBM deal Vendors Team Up to Merge Linux Releases   Additional Coverage View our Linux special coverage page Computerworld news and feature coverage of the Linux operating system.

Source: Computerworld

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