ORCL: IBM and Oracle Join Forces To Meet Linux On Mainframe Demand

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Oracle today announced a strategic initiative to collaborate on the sales and marketing of a series of enterprise business solutions with Oracle applications and technology for Linux on System z in order to target the business requirements of large and medium size enterprise customers and meet growing market demand. This initiative complements a series of investments IBM and Oracle have made in support of Linux as an enterprise application platform.
"Linux customers and Linux workloads represent a significant percentage of our mainframe growth revenue," said Jim Stallings, general manager, System z for IBM. "The combination of the capabilities of IBM System z, Oracle's software running on Linux on the System z platform and planned customer incentives up to $250,000 creates a very compelling value proposition for these clients."

Sales teams from both companies will collaborate to present the advantages of the initiative's offerings to joint customers. In support of these activities, IBM and Oracle will build upon their commitment and resources in the Oracle/IBM Joint Solution Center in Montpellier, France, along with the IBM Oracle International Competency Center in Silicon Valley. These resources are focused on expanding the competency of sales teams that are selling these solutions through the development and delivery of best practices and implementation guidance - as well as supporting customers who are leveraging IBM System z and Oracle's software running on Linux on the System z platform.

"Linux is strategic to Oracle. We see significant sales opportunity for Oracle's open system solutions running on Linux on System z, and look forward to growing our sales efforts to capitalize on this opportunity," said Robert Shimp, vice president, Global Technology Business Unit at Oracle. "Today we offer a comprehensive set of enterprise infrastructure and solutions that build upon and modernize customer investments in System z, including Oracle E-Business Suite, Siebel CRM and PeopleSoft Enterprise using Oracle Database 10g Release2 on Linux on System z. Going forward, we will continue to explore opportunities that exploit the unique capabilities of Linux on System z."

This sales initiative is being built on four years of proven customer success in the market. These open system solutions are targeted to improve customer business process execution, business insight, price performance, and to help reduce total cost of ownership for a wide range of large and medium organizations.

The initiative's solutions will be made available with both the IBM System z9 Enterprise Class (z9 EC) and IBM System z9 Business Class (z9 BC) servers, which are ideal for deploying these joint solutions for Linux across an array of enterprises.