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2001-08: SAP - Linux first. then Unix, Microsoft last

Did Microsoft get hot over SAP because it was moving to Linux as a reference platform as early as 2001?

From coverage of LinuxWorld Conference and Expo
"Best Practices with Linux for an e-Business Infrastructure" 2001-08-28

From the head of SAP's Linux Development Lab
9:00 minutes into the speech
QUOTE
... What about Linux and SAP

We believe that Linux is stable and relable to run your mission critical
applications on that platform. Thats why thought, OK, we do the shift,
we will run SAP on Linux, we will do the port.

We were very impressed of the development speed of the Linux community,
how fast the kernel was improving, how fast the library was improving,
multithreading support was implemented.

We were also a good part of the kernel developing team, one of the
kernel developers in our lab, for example contributed very specific parts
for enterprise support that not only SAP can benefit but also, for example
Oracle can benefit from. So it is the open source model that we thought is
the internet age development model that we can rely on because it works.
We have proof that it works with the Linux kernel now up to 2.4.4 which we are
just certifying right now.

Also our customers who use Linux , they say "OK, it works great we don't
have any problems at all" . There where migrating customers staying on the
Intel platform, there were migrating customers who went from a propritory
Unix to the Linux operating system, some of them just left the data base
on the propritory Unix platform, some of them just put the database over,
some started from scratch, they are all terrifed how good everything works.

Thats a fact, because Linux is more than just a hacker operating system, thats
still in the minds of the people - dont forget that.

And I think that SAP with that shift, and also with the support, that this is
more than a hacker operating system. Many companies run, I think it's about
400 right now are running their productive business on Linux with SAP, and
Linux meets the high standard of SAP, thats what I said before.

We also shifted our development process, I think that is the main point in
the presentation, as a reference platform for SAP. Everything that is
developed in SAP is developed on Linux first, afterwards it is ported
to the diverse Unixs and then to the NT platform.
UNQUOTE

Posted by: David Mohring   Posted on: 06/29/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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