German Finance Group migrates from Solaris to Red Hat Enterprise Linux

PLUS Finanzservice selects Open Source platform over proprietary incumbents.

노스캐롤라이나주 롤리 -

Red Hat, Inc. (Nasdaq: RHAT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions to the enterprise, today announced that PLUS FinanzService GmbH has migrated its IT infrastructure from Sun Solaris to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. PLUS provides financial services including in-store credit and customer loyalty cards to a number of high profile organisations including IKEA, the world's largest furniture retailer. Operating an online card management system to process customer enquiries and requests in real-time, PLUS has migrated its bespoke application across to Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on an Intel cluster.


With an existing Sun Solaris system in place, the company was looking for a new platform that was as powerful and reliable as possible. The solution also needed to be scalable, manageable and, ideally, provide a significant cost reduction. After considering the alternatives, the company decided to migrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Intel-compatible hardware from Dell and based on a new cluster architecture.


"Our Web Services application is at the heart of how we interact with our customers and so its performance is critical to the overall performance of our business," said Gerrit-Leonhard Stein, IT Manager at PLUS Finanzservice GmbH. "When faced with the choice of either upgrading our existing system or looking for a new solution, we decided to create a completely new infrastructure that would be able to deliver the reliability, high performance and scalability that we needed. During benchmarks, it quickly became apparent that performance-wise, migrating to Microsoft would not be an option for this business-critical server application. We also found during testing that the performance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Intel-Hardware was superior to a Solaris solution."


The central Red Hat installation at PLUS runs on a four-node cluster with dual-processor systems, which access a Storage Area Network. Clustering is controlled by the Oracle 9i Real Application Server (9i RAC) database solution. The new cluster system is designed to be fail-proof. For additional security the whole production environment is mirrored in an external data centre, which features exactly the same architecture and is synchronised online with the production environment. A Red Hat Professional Services Team was responsible for installing the production environment. Red Hat also installed and fine-tuned the entire operating system platform and the new system, including the Oracle RAC.


"Red Hat's service has absolutely convinced us. The Red Hat engineers and support team have contributed significantly to the success of the whole project," said Stein.


In addition to deploying Red Hat on a cluster for their business-critical card application, PLUS is using Red Hat Enterprise Linux on test machines and a backup server, which controls a tape library. Red Hat is also deployed on a virtual infrastructure from VMware, on which PLUS is running a production database among other applications.


An important component of the Linux-infrastructure is the Red Hat Network proxy server. The proxy server constitutes the central connection to the RHN, over which Red Hat provides updates, patches and errata. Via the proxy server PLUS can manage the systems maintenance and update centrally for the whole Linux-infrastructure. The Red Hat Network component of the Red Hat Enterprise subscription also means that PLUS does not have to depend on major releases for updates to be available.


"We are especially happy to count PLUS Finanzservice among our new customers," said Werner Knoblich, Director, Red Hat EMEA. "The deployment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux at PLUS highlights the fact that more and more organisations are entrusting their business-critical applications in the data centre to our products and services. In this case, our close relationships with our partners was key. Oracle worked closely together with Red Hat and Dell to develop the 9i RAC-solution - a combination that has proven itself frequently in demanding deployments and has achieved record performances."


To learn more please visit http://www.redhat.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.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.

  • 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.