Statoil migrates to Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Norweigian oil company halves systems administration costs through UNIX-Linux migration

STOCCOLMA -

Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, today announced that Statoil, Norway's largest oil company with representation in 29 countries, has migrated its IT environment from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux realising cost savings of 50%. The cost savings stem from more efficient systems admininstration and improved performance of current applications. Today, 70% of Statoil's E&P applications are now running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the number of UNIX variations deployed within Statoil has decreaesed from seven to four.


Statoil's IT-environment was based on seven different versions of UNIX and Microsoft Windows, leading to a highly complex platform with considerable costs for systems administration. When the company performed a thorough evaluation of open standards-based alternatives available, the results clearly showed that a two step migration to Linux would both satisfy its needs and reduce costs while maintaining the required security levels. The first step was to migrate applications such as e-mail and dns for the UNIX environment. Phase two involved migrating specialist applications and systems such as its Schlumberger Eclipse, an application used for reservoir simulation which increased its performance by 10-40 fold following the move to Red Hat Enterprise Linux sytems.


"Statoil's demands for application quality and accessability are very high. This fundamental standardisation from seven UNIX variations to running only Linux and Windows will result in a much more efficient systems administrations department," said Johnny Roen, chief engineer at Statoil.


Statoil chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux and hardware from Intel due to combination of complexity and price levels, especially in comparison with RISC based platforms.


"We chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux because of the open OS and Red Hat's large market share. Compared with the alternatives, where SuSE was the main competitor, Red Hat showed other strengths as well. Red Hat has much stronger ISV and partner support meaning that there is not only more products and documentation available, but also that the competition among third party suppliers is bigger," continued Johnny Roen at Statoil.


"Statoil had very clear objectives when undertaking the migration from legacy Unix to Red Hat Enterprise Linux – consolidate on a single open platform, increase performance and decrease costs," said Werner Knoblich, Managing Director Red Hat Europe. "Statoil’s consolidation project is still running but they already diminished the number of Unix variations from seven to four. Today, 70 % of the services formerly run on UNIX are now running on Linux generating Statoil cost savings of over 50 % after the systems had been migrated from Unix to Linux on Intel. Statoil is a testament to what can be achieved when you combine a clear migration strategy with strong support from Red Hat and its partners."

 


About Statoil


Statoil is an integrated oil and gas company with substantial international activities. Represented in 29 countries, the group has about 24,000 employees. Nearly 50% of these employees work outside Norway. Statoil is the leading producer on the Norwegian continental shelf and is operator for 20 oil and gas fields. The group's international production is enjoying strong growth, and Statoil is a leading retailer of petrol and oil product in Scandinavia, Ireland, Poland and the Baltic states.


For more information please visit www.statoil.com


About Red Hat, Inc.


Red Hat, the world's leading open source and Linux provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with satellite offices spanning the globe. Red Hat is leading Linux and open source solutions into the mainstream by making high quality, low cost technology accessible. Red Hat provides operating system software along with middleware, applications, and management solutions. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide and through top-tier partnerships. Red Hat's Open Source strategy offers customers a long-term plan for building infrastructures that are based on and leverage open source technologies with focus on security and ease of management. Learn more: http://www.europe.redhat.com


Forward-Looking Statements


Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for the Company, including statements containing the words "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," and similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: the factors discussed in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC (a copy of which may be accessed through the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov), reliance upon strategic relationships, management of growth, the possibility of undetected software errors, the risks of economic downturns generally, and in Red Hat's industry specifically, the risks associated with competition and competitive pricing pressures and the viability of the Internet. In addition, the forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release.
LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. Solaris is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

 


For more information please contact:
Andi Lustak,
AxiCom for Red Hat,
+44 20 8392 4058,
andi.lustak@axicom.com

  • About Red Hat
  • Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As the connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com.



  • Forward-Looking Statements
  • Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to delays or reductions in information technology spending; the effects of industry consolidation; the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company’s growth and international operations; fluctuations in exchange rates; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company’s views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.