Customers wanting to use those services will be encouraged to go through IBM Global Services. The Linux partners--Red Hat, SuSE and TurboLinux--will be providing tightly integrated and bundled packages of their 390 Linuxes and the IBM software. For a revenue stream, the companies will be providing Level three support through Global Services. The Linux powers' profit from the mainframe deals will come from revenue-sharing contracts with IBM.
But the Linux companies and their reseller partners aren't limited to playing a supporting role. Paul McNamara, Red Hat's VP of Products and Marketing, says that Red Hat expects "to have direct relations with some 390 customers where we'll provide Level one through to three support." McNamara also sees the possibility of "other customer deals, like configuration management and performance management, where Red Hat and its resellers would be the senior partners in a 390 deal."
But where will the customers come from? McNamara thinks that a big selling point will be that with the combination of IBM and Linux, customers will like knowing that they can get applications that can grow on a single common operating system from Intel-based servers to IBM mainframes with every step in between also covered.
To that, Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's VP of System Software Research adds, from a prepared statement, "Linux is seeing increasing usage as a part of basic IT infrastructure at many organizations. IBM has positioned itself well to be considered one of the leading suppliers in this emerging market." In short, IBM supported Linux is becoming part of the enterprise IT infrastructure already.
