FAST FACTS

Industry: Manufacturing

Geography: India

Challenge: To reduce dependence on UNIX systems, improve cost-efficiency ratio, simplify systems management, and improve scalability for business growth

Migration Path: HP UX/UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on Intel Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge server

Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and Oracle DB

Hardware: Dell 2950 PowerEdge server, Intel Quad Core Xeon-based E5410 x 2 (Dual CPU) Processors

Benefits: Eliminated vendor lock-in, doubled system performance, slashed costs by one-tenth translating into cost savings of over Rs. 40 lakh (USD $83,333), and gained the ability to independently manage systems

“Today, I have complete peace of mind because Red Hat Enterprise Linux on our Intel Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge server has delivered stability, performance gains, and cost savings while providing the ability to scale to the rapidly growing demands of our organization.”
–Pertish Mankotia, head of IT, Sheela Foam

Download the case study [PDF]

BACKGROUND
A US 200 million group and an ISO 9001:2000 company, Sheela Foam is the largest manufacturer of flexible Polyurethane Foam (PU) in India. The company ranks among the top five PU foam manufacturing companies in the Asia-Pacific region. In India, the firm has ten manufacturing units, supported through a distribution network of over 70 distributors and 3,000 dealers. The firm also has a presence in Australia, with five manufacturing units located in five major cities. A combination of manufacturing excellence and distribution network has enabled the company to capture over 40 percent of the Indian PU foam market share.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE
Sheela Foam had previously developed its own custom Enterprise Resource Planning application (ERP), Greatplus, based on Oracle and HP-UX to automate its entire production process, from procurement to production. The custom-built ERP is integrated into Sheela Foam’s distribution network of 70 distributors and 3,000 dealers and the firm also used an innovative SMS-based tracking system that helps the company to accurately track and maintain inventory at the location of its distributors and dealers. With every dispatch made by the company to the dealer, an SMS message is sent to the distributor about the stock dispatched to him.

In this process, every transaction made by the more than 1,500 users worldwide each day was recorded by the ERP system. While the self-constructed ERP system helped Sheela Foam to boost customer confidence, it also meant that the costly system had to be available 24×7.In an effort to improve its cost-value ratio, lower costs, and reduce vendor lock-in, Sheela Foam decided to evaluate a number of platforms, including those based on open source technology.

“As a company, we wanted to maximize the value gained from the support provided, as the support costs were too high and prevented us from scaling effectively,” said Pertish Mankotia, head of IT, Sheela Foam.

Sheela Foam’s HP-UX system, forced it to depend on a proprietary vendor to test and implement improvements, which made the process less effective and expensive to maintain.

Sheela Foam decided to adopt an open source solution after the company’s HP-UX system went down and took more than 16 hours to recover. As a mission-critical system, any system downtime directly impacted the reputation of the company and in turn, sales and profits. The incident provided Sheela Foam the impetus to migrate to an open source solution that could be independently maintained by its own IT team.

SOLUTION
After evaluating a host of options, Sheela Foam consulted Red Hat Enterprise Linux partner Keen & Able Computers. Convinced about the value offered, the firm trusted the market leader, Red Hat, and chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on an Intel Xeon processor-based Dell PowerEdge server. The preloaded Dell 2950 PowerEdge server made the migration and installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux quick and easy. This meant that the system was ready to be tested and could be deployed immediately.

BENEFITS
Red Hat Enterprise Linux on an Intel Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge server has enabled the firm to deploy its ERP on a single server, compared to the two previously required servers, doubling system performance with no downtime. The Red Hat solution has also reduced the amount of time required for processing heavy reports by 25 percent. The reduction in servers and associated maintenance costs has translated to cost savings of over Rs. 40 lakh (USD83,333). The firm now spends only Rs. 4 lakh (USD 8333) per year compared to the more than Rs. 44 lakh (USD 91,667) on its previous UNIX system.

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Intel Xeon-based processors has doubled Sheela Foam’s performance levels, significantly lowered costs, and has given it the ability to independently manage its systems. Today, Sheela Foam’s IT team is able to make improvements rapidly with ease.

“Today, I have complete peace of mind because the Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Intel Xeon processor-based Dell PowerEdge server system is known for its stability and is well-designed to scale to the rapidly growing demands of our organization. My only regret is that I did not start this earlier,” said Mankotia.

The trusted Red Hat solution has given the Sheela Foam IT team the ability to focus on more strategic issues that can boost the competitiveness of the company.

Companies: Advent Conferencing and CITYTECH

Industry: Conferencing/ Services/Technology

Geography: Chicago

Business Challenge: Needed to differentiate itself from the competition in a commodity marketplace.

Software: JBoss Enterprise Application Platform Including: JBoss Seam Framework, JBoss Messaging and JBoss Cache, JBoss jBPM Framework

Benefits: Increased sales by offering a more flexible and customized service; Boosted customer satisfaction by improving provisioning and billing procedures; streamlined internal processes and cut operational costs through integrating customer relationship management, business process management, and accounting systems.

“With an award-winning organization like Red Hat behind us, and world-class technology like JBoss to leverage for our solutions, we are primed for success,” said Matt Van Bergan, chief technology officer, CITYTECH.

“CITYTECH listens to my needs, and is very creative about coming back with ideas, they speak in terms that make me confident they understand my business, and are completely focused on making Advent successful.” – Mike Swimelar, president, Advent Conferencing

See CITYTECH in the Press: Enterprise Management Quarterly

Download the case study [PDF]

BACKGROUND
As a full-service telephone and Web conferencing service provider, Advent Conferencing offers the latest in secure collaboration technology for businesses of all sizes. It prides itself on being on the technological edge, and delivers the best sound quality and broadest range of features in the industry at competitive rates. Based in Chicago, Advent has a customer base that reaches throughout the United States, and has managed to differentiate itself in a crowded commodity marketplace through a savvy combination of the latest technologies and stellar customer service.

CITYTECH is a Chicago-based consultancy specializing in the design, development, and execution of highly available and scalable enterprise applications. A Red Hat partner, it specializes in JBoss, Java Enterprise Edition (J2EE), and other top software development platforms. CITYTECH’s mission is to help its customers achieve their business goals through technology. Founded in 2003, and growing at a rate of 25 percent annually, CITYTECH’s success is due to its ability to execute projects using an agile but methodical implementation methodology deployed by small, highly experienced teams of professionals. It forges long-term partnerships with clients and makes customer satisfaction its No. 1 priority.

OPPORTUNITY
The teleconferencing business is increasingly a commodity business. Most market participants offer roughly the same services at roughly the same price points. Mike Swimelar, president of Advent Conferencing, understood that the only way to differentiate his company from the pack of competitors was through technological innovation. By 2006, he was already offering the very the latest in secure collaboration technologies with the best sound quality and richest feature set. Its audio conferencing network, bridges, and processes were the most reliable in the industry. But he was looking for even more of an edge. “I realized there was more we could do,” said Swimelar.

Specifically, Swimelar wanted to provide advanced account management services to his customers that would enable them to do such things as generate usage reports on the fly; track expenses by conference leader, project, or account; and specify when, how, and in what format they would be billed. He also wanted to streamline Advent’s own internal operations. At the time, senior management, sales, marketing, operations, and accounting functions were served by “stovepipe” information systems that fragmented business and operational data in a way that made it difficult to see the big picture.

Billing – the lifeblood of any business – was especially problematic. “We were getting data dumps from the bridge software that we had to manually massage,” said Swimelar. “It could take days, sometimes longer, to get customer billing out.” In addition to slowing down cash flow, there was no flexibility in tailoring the bills according to customers’ specifications. And customers were also demanding more advanced management features that would allow them to track which employees were using the conferencing system, when, and for how long, and give them easy access to other usage and billing metrics. “Our customers wanted more control and visibility into the service, but our existing systems weren’t capable of providing that,” said Swimelar.

SOLUTION
Swimelar had worked with CITYTECH’s chief technology officer, Matt Van Bergan, while at another company. He went to Van Bergan for help developing an integrated Web-based application that would simultaneously meet Advent’s internal and customer-facing requirements. CITYTECH used the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform as the basis of a development and deployment platform for building an application the two firms dubbed “Advent Pulse.”

To accomplish this, CITYTECH used the JBoss Messaging functionality within the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform to provide asynchronous communication with the conferencing bridge hardware. The JBoss Seam Framework was the basis for the Web application, primarily due to its integrated AJAX functionality. JBoss jBPM was used to model and manage the human-driven business processes. Finally, the JCache support within the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform enhanced performance when communicating to the dedicated conference bridge hardware.

BENEFITS
Today, Advent Pulse provides customer relationship management (CRM), live interface with the conference bridges for billing data extraction, business intelligence, and sales commission management in one seamless application.

The benefits were immediate, and substantial. “We spend a lot less time struggling just getting data into a format for billing customers, and a lot more time on marketing and sales,” said Swimelar. Additionally, he said, Advent can provision new customers and fill orders much more swiftly and cost effectively, and provide customers with near-real-time access to usage metrics.

The net result? “Customer satisfaction is much higher, billing errors have been eliminated, and Swimelar is convinced that he’s making more sales as a direct result of the new system in place. “Because we’re able to deliver exactly what our customers need, and do it flexibly, quickly, and for a competitive rate, it has really made a difference in our revenues,” he said.

“CITYTECH listens to my needs, and is very creative about coming back with ideas. Rather than being so acronym-oriented that I don’t know what they are talking about, they speak in terms that make me confident they understand my business, and are completely focused on making me successful,” said Swimelar.

In turn, CITYTECH points back to Red Hat as the ideal technology partner. “With an award-winning organization like Red Hat behind us, and world-class technology like JBoss to leverage for our solutions, we are primed for success,” said Van Bergan. Plus, he said, the stellar enterprise support, and the direction laid out by its product roadmap have made JBoss the perfect choice of middleware for many of its clients.

Looking ahead, Advent plans to use CITYTECH’s help to keep innovating. “That’s what’s going to keep us ahead of the competition,” said Swimelar. He is currently engaged with CITYTECH’s consulting division to brainstorm how the JBoss Communications Platform – based upon the Mobicents open source project – can be used to migrate from a traditional bridge teleconferencing architecture to a more integrated solution that enables the next-generation of conferencing services. “As we get off the traditional telephone networks and more into IP [Internet Protocol], we’ll be able to implement new solutions that would allow us to integrate voice and Web conferencing even more,” said Swimelar. “We’re very excited about the possibilities.”

FAST FACTS

Company: KSH Holdings

Industry: Construction

Geography: Singapore

Challenge: Needed a reliable, scalable, and cost-effective solution to monitor project budgets and ensure timely data reports for use by the KSH Holdings management team

Migration Path: Paper-based reporting system to a Progress Claims System (PCS) running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, PHP, and Apache

Hardware: Dell 2850 with 2 GB RAM and 1 x Processor

Benefits: Developed a scalable Progress Claims System (PCS) that offered access to real-time financial data, reduced manual input errors, and enabled expedited reimbursement processes for subcontractors

“We handle a lot of data input on a daily basis and require something stable and capable of handling the load. That’s why we chose Red Hat.”
-Tony Tang, Chief Financial Officer of KSH Holdings.

Download the Case Study [PDF]

BACKGROUND
With more than 28 years of experience, Kim Seng Heng Holdings (KSH Holdings) is a well established construction, property development and property management group with operations in Singapore, Malaysia and China. The group’s activities are construction in Singapore and Malaysia, and property development and management in China.

Among its notable private sector construction projects in Singapore are The Coast, The Berth By The Cove, The Spectrum, Montview, the Mustafa Shopping Centre extension, and the restoration of Far East Square. Its public sector portfolio includes The Frontier Community Place, Choa Chu Kang Sports Complex, Nanyang Polytechnic, and Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. KSH Holdings has also secured a S$32 million contract to build an assembly plant in Selangor and a S$7.2 million contract from Tan Chong & Sons Motor for the construction of a warehouse and office in Selangor.

CHALLENGE
With several simultaneous projects underway in Singapore, KSH Holdings’ finance department needed to a better system to keep track of all claims for payment for work completed by subcontractors. This manual process involved the subcontractor submitting a claim, the quantity surveyor verifying the work done, and the manager and director approving the submission. The previous claims system involved a paper form that had to be passed by hand across sites in Singapore to reach project managers and directors located in different offices.

As a result of the outdated manual process, there were inconsistencies in the progress claims, and the KSH Holding management team could not reliably track their budgets.

“We needed something to monitor the project cost at almost real time to ensure that we were not exceeding our budget. When insufficient or incorrect information is provided to the finance department, payment to the subcontractor may be delayed. The manual process was inconsistent and we could not generate management reports,” said Tony Tang, Chief Financial Officer of KSH Holdings.

The company wanted a solution that could streamline the entire claims process and deliver accurate, real-time data that could be used to produce meaningful management reports.

“Users must be able to log in to the system from any location to input the data. This data will be stored centrally and the system must be able to compute the information and push back to the financial system. The system must allow project managers and directors to check on the current progress in development and payment. It must also be reliable and secure,” said Tang.

With these criteria in mind, KSH Holdings decided to turn to Cxrus Solutions, a Red Hat Advanced Business Partner, to develop a Process Claims Systems (PCS).

SOLUTION
Cxrus Solutions studied the construction company’s needs and spoke to its quantity surveyors, project managers, directors, and the finance department to understand the requirements for the desired PCS.

“We handle a lot of data input on a daily basis and require something stable and capable of handling the load. That’s why we chose Red Hat,” said Tang.

According to Alvin Teo, Business Solutions Director of Cxrus Solutions, the cost of using Red Hat is lower than other platforms.

“The solution also runs faster and performs better when deployed on Red Hat. Of course, Red Hat is renowned for its security, reliability, and scalability,” said Teo.

Cxrus Solutions conducted end-user training for about 40 quantity surveyors, project managers and directors, and finance department staff at KSH Holdings. The PCS, based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, PHP, and Apache, went live in October 2007.

Teo believes that taking part in the Infocomm Development Authority’s (IDA) Infocomm Local Industry Upgrading Programme (iLIUP) has given his company a technology edge.

iLIUP is aimed at promoting mutually beneficial partnerships between local enterprises in Singapore and infocomm multinational corporations, leveraging the strengths of each party to bring about greater synergy and results.

“Cxrus Solutions has gained much from Red Hat’s technological insights of the Linux operating system versus other operating systems. This has helped us to craft the best possible solutions for our customers. KSH is a good example of a customer that has benefitted from our participation in iLIUP,” he added.

BENEFITS
It took some time for the KSH Holdings staff to become accustomed to the switch from a manual system to an automated system, but the employees quickly realized the benefits of the solution.

“PCS is a means to record work done. The Red Hat-based solution has met our objectives of improving data accuracy, better visibility of project cost, and prompt payment to our sub-contractors. Our quantity surveyors can now check the status of their claims online from any location,” said Tang.

Since the Red Hat Enterprise Linux-based system was implemented in 2007, business has increased by about 70 percent. Due to the scalability of the platform, the KSH Holdings financial department was additionally able to handle the associated workload increase without needing to recruit more staff, saving more money.

In addition to providing increased accuracy and scalability, PCS has also made data more easily retrievable so that management reports can be produced quickly when necessary.

Claims processing time has been cut by 50 to 60 percent, enabling sub-contractors to be paid more promptly. This, in turn, leads to maintaining good relationships and enhanced corporate reputation.

Going forward, KSH Holdings plans to link PCS with the financial system to enable customised management reports on the fly.

“We are also planning to add a document management system to PCS so that we can reduce the amount of paper utilised. By doing this, we will also have better document security, and we’ll save on storage space,” said Tang.

Experiences 500 percent increase in website capacity after implementing Red Hat and JBoss technologies

Raleigh NC – February 13, 2008 – Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that The Decurion Corporation, a real estate and movie exhibition corporation, has achieved success with a full suite of Red Hat solutions. Since implementing JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Global File System for Decurion’s ArcLight Cinemas website, the company has experienced enhanced support and increased performance, scalability and cost-effectiveness.

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif., The Decurion Corporation is parent to three primary operating businesses: Pacific Theatres Corporation, Robertson Properties Group and the ArcLight Cinema Company (ArcLight). ArcLight provides a transformational movie experience that enhances the viewers’ connection to cinema through design, amenities, service and programming. ArcLight formerly operated one theater in Hollywood with 14 auditoriums and the world-famous Cinerama Dome. The company opened a second theater in December 2007 in Sherman Oaks, CA.

Approximately 40 percent of ArcLight Cinemas ticket sales are sold through its online ticket site, ArclightCinemas.com. With a growing online customer base, ArcLight looked to fix issues with its ticket sales website, previously based on Microsoft’s .NET framework. The website had experienced issues including extensive downtime and lengthy resolution time for issues.

“When researching solutions for our ArcLight ticket website, I referenced my successful past experience with JBoss’ proven technology. There was no need to explore other technology options, because I knew JBoss would solve our issues,” said Brad Bahmanpour, Enterprise Systems Architect at Decurion. “Open source is much easier to work with in terms of licensing for the user, and it’s extremely cost-effective. JBoss Enterprise Middleware helps us accelerate solution delivery because it provides the beneficial features associated with open source solutions, combined with easy deployment and impressive customer service and support.”

Since the migration, ArcLight has experienced benefits, including ease of development on J2EE platforms and the utilization of Web Services technology. “It’s like a black and white experience between .NET and developing with JBoss,” said Bahmanpour. “We’ve had far fewer issues, and those that we have experienced have been dealt with very quickly and efficiently. JBoss technology makes development much easier and it’s very open for natural extensions like JBoss Hibernate.”

Additionally, utilizing the clustering features of the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform has made the ArclightCinemas.com website scalable. ArcLight will now be able to add new nodes to its servers and enable more users and heightened traffic on its website without a change in application. Prior to implementing JBoss technology, the website could only sustain about 100 concurrent users. Now, with JBoss Clustering, it can sustain more than 600 concurrent users. For this capacity increase, ArcLight uses the same number of HP DL580G machines with only the addition of one load balancer and two application servers.

“With Linux and JBoss, we have a lot of room to grow right now. In addition to our ArclightCinemas.com website, we have utilized the JBoss, Apache and Linux platform to develop the Decurion Management company website, www.decurion.com, and also the forums.arclightcinemas.com and experience.arclightcinemas.com websites. We are planning to incorporate JBoss Operations Network, JBoss Hibernate and JBoss Seam into our solution in 2008,” said Bahmanpour.

For more information about Red Hat solutions, visit www.redhat.com and www.jboss.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com

About Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, the world’s leading open source solutions provider, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 50 satellite offices spanning the globe. CIOs have ranked Red Hat first for value in Enterprise Software for four consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value study. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including the JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: 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 the integration of acquisitions; the ability of the Company to effectively compete; 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; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company’s growth and international operations; adverse results in litigation; and changes in and a dependence on the 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, 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.

Experiences 500 percent increase in website capacity after implementing Red Hat and JBoss technologies

Industry: Real Estate and Movie Exhibition Corporation

Challenge: With a growing online customer base, Decurion’s ArcLightCenmas.com looked to fix issues with its ticket sales website, previously based on Microsoft’s .NET framework.

Migration Path: .NET framework to JBoss Enterprise Applciation Platform

Solution: JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Global File System

Benefits: Enhanced support and increased performance, scalability and cost-effectiveness.

Geography: Los Angeles, CA

“JBoss Enterprise Middleware helps us accelerate solution delivery because it provides the beneficial features associated with open source solutions, combined with easy deployment and impressive customer service and support.”
Brad Bahmanpour, Enterprise Systems Architect at Decurion

Headquartered in Los Angeles, Calif., The Decurion Corporation is parent to three primary operating businesses: Pacific Theatres Corporation, Robertson Properties Group and the ArcLight Cinema Company (ArcLight). ArcLight provides a transformational movie experience that enhances the viewers’ connection to cinema through design, amenities, service and programming. ArcLight formerly operated one theater in Hollywood with 14 auditoriums and the world-famous Cinerama Dome. The company opened a second theater in December 2007 in Sherman Oaks, CA.

Approximately 40 percent of ArcLight Cinemas ticket sales are sold through its online ticket site, ArclightCinemas.com. With a growing online customer base, ArcLight looked to fix issues with its ticket sales website, previously based on Microsoft’s .NET framework. The website had experienced issues including extensive downtime and lengthy resolution time for issues.

“When researching solutions for our ArcLight ticket website, I referenced my successful past experience with JBoss’ proven technology. There was no need to explore other technology options, because I knew JBoss would solve our issues,” said Brad Bahmanpour, Enterprise Systems Architect at Decurion. “Open source is much easier to work with in terms of licensing for the user, and it’s extremely cost-effective. JBoss Enterprise Middleware helps us accelerate solution delivery because it provides the beneficial features associated with open source solutions, combined with easy deployment and impressive customer service and support.”

Since the migration, ArcLight has experienced benefits, including ease of development on J2EE platforms and the utilization of Web Services technology. “It’s like a black and white experience between .NET and developing with JBoss,” said Bahmanpour. “We’ve had far fewer issues, and those that we have experienced have been dealt with very quickly and efficiently. JBoss technology makes development much easier and it’s very open for natural extensions like JBoss Hibernate.”

Additionally, utilizing the clustering features of the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform has made the ArclightCinemas.com website scalable. ArcLight will now be able to add new nodes to its servers and enable more users and heightened traffic on its website without a change in application. Prior to implementing JBoss technology, the website could only sustain about 100 concurrent users. Now, with JBoss Clustering, it can sustain more than 600 concurrent users. For this capacity increase, ArcLight uses the same number of HP DL580G machines with only the addition of one load balancer and two application servers.

“With Linux and JBoss, we have a lot of room to grow right now. In addition to our ArclightCinemas.com website, we have utilized the JBoss, Apache and Linux platform to develop the Decurion Management company website, www.decurion.com, and also the forums.arclightcinemas.com and experience.arclightcinemas.com websites. We are planning to incorporate JBoss Operations Network, JBoss Hibernate and JBoss Seam into our solution in 2008,” said Bahmanpour

For more information about Red Hat solutions, visit www.redhat.com and www.jboss.com. For more news, more often, visit www.press.redhat.com

Start-up shortens time-to-market, gains industry recognition Industry: Sales 2.0

Geography: Pittsburgh, PA

Opportunity: Build a high-availability Saas solution that could support product evolution, a growing subscriber base, and integration with multiple technologies

Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Application Server, Hibernate, Oracle 10g RAC cluster solution

Applications: Landslide (a Sales Workstyle Management Solution)

Hardware: Dell, Cisco Gigabit switches, Cisco Gigabit firewalls

Benefits: Expedited time-to-market, optimized resources to improved product development, and delivered a highly secure, reliable solution that’s recognized by the industry

Download Case StudyBackground

Founded by seasoned sales veterans, Landslide Technologies Inc. is a pioneer in Sales Workstyle Management, offering the industry’s first solution designed to address the working needs of the individual salesperson. To support the habits of salespeople, the Landslide solution provides software as a service (SaaS) as well as a live administrative assistant—helping maximize sales time, drive action, and generate results. Gartner, Inc. has positioned Landslide in the Visionaries Quadrant of the Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation, 2007” for its high ratings in a number of areas, including the company’s completeness of vision, market understanding, and ability to demonstrate innovation in meeting customer needs. CRM Magazine also chose Landslide as the “One to Watch” in its Sales Force Automation category, which included companies such as Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Sugar, and other leading vendors.

Opportunity

As an innovative start-up, Landslide Technologies needed the right solution to help the company speed time-to-market without requiring a large financial investment. Landslide decided that a SaaS delivery model would best meet its business objectives. “Providing a hosted service meant we needed a technology that would provide the highest availability and scalability— reliably supporting thousands of users as our business grew,” said Anupam Singh, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Landslide Technologies. To meet customer needs fully, Landslide also required a flexible architecture that would enable the company to modify its product quickly as business needs changed. This flexibility would also allow easy integration with Landslide’s clients’ CRM and ERP systems. “We decided to use open source technologies, which would give us the most flexibility and interoperability to integrate with other solutions, including partner and supporting technologies we wanted to leverage. But we also needed top-notch support,” said Singh.

Solution

Once Landslide established the technological criteria it required to build a strong SaaS business model, choosing the solution was easy. “At Landslide, the decision to implement Red Hat and JBoss solutions was very close to unanimous because of the reliability and flexibility offered by Red Hat,” said Singh. “We chose Red Hat solutions for the rock-solid platform and excellent support offered and because JBoss solutions made dynamic development a reality for us.” The company leveraged its existing relationship with Dell to purchase its computing servers, as well as Red Hat and JBoss solutions. “Because Dell works so closely with Red Hat, buying the comprehensive solution through Dell was simple and cost-effective,” said Singh.

JBoss Application Server provides a clean separation between presentation, business logic, and database tiers, making it possible for Landslide to modify its product quickly and easily. “One of our product’s unique selling points is the rich, dynamic interface it offers. JBoss enables us to update the interface as often as needed to continue to enhance our user’s experience,” said Singh. Landslide also uses JBoss Hibernate to perform object/relational mapping. “With Hibernate, we’ve abstracted database specifics, eliminating common datapersistence programming tasks and significantly reducing development time,” said Singh.

Today, Dell servers run Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Application Server, and a Sun Java virtual machine. A load balancing front-end disperses customer access to the Dell servers. On the back-end, high-powered dual-core Dell servers run an Oracle 10g RAC cluster solution via Cisco Gigabit firewalls and switches for secure, reliable database connectivity. “We’ve created an infrastructure that optimizes performance and ensures the highest reliability. With their very high availability, Red Hat solutions provide the foundation. We know we can turn our system on and forget about it. And because it offers complete interoperability, our Red Hat-based system enables us to leverage all the best technologies and vendors—including disaster recovery and off-site backup solutions—to ensure our system works 24×7,” said Singh.

“Red Hat and JBoss played a crucial role in helping us develop an innovative, reliable product that is recognized by industry experts, analysts, and above all, our customers.” — Anupam Singh, co-founder and chief technology officer, Landslide technologies

Benefits

Using Red Hat and JBoss solutions, Landslide built the infrastructure required to deliver the first Sales Workstyle Management solution to the market. “This wasn’t just any project. The stakes were very high because without a successful product, the company would not exist. Red Hat and JBoss played a crucial role in helping us develop an innovative, reliable product that’s recognized by industry experts, analysts, and above all, our customers,” said Singh.

The Red Hat and JBoss solutions shortened Landslide’s time-to-market, enabling the company to apply its limited resources to create a better product and increase customer satisfaction. “When you are a startup, every minute and every dollar counts even more. With Red Hat and JBoss solutions, we were able to make our dollars go farther. The savings in administration and development time allowed us to focus on new features and functionality. All of this equates to more, happy customers,” said Singh.

Using mature, open source technologies facilitates the development, maintenance, and delivery of a highly secure Landslide product. “All of our hardware, as well as our database and application server technologies, are Red Hat certified. Interoperability makes our hosting and delivery much easier,” said Singh. Because the large open source community is constantly developing and debugging code, security risks within the Landslide product are minimized and quality and reliability are higher. “We were able to make a potential customer comfortable with the security of our solution by simply pointing to the internal algorithms within the JBoss/Red Hat code,” said Singh.

Leveraging one vendor for multiple key technologies and support enables Landslide to realize significant time and cost savings. “With Red Hat and JBoss solutions, you receive a wide array of complementary technologies supported by one vendor—giving you the advantages of a one-stop shop, without having to worry about vendor lock-in,” said Singh. “Knowing we have excellent support enables us to concentrate on designing and building a solution that exceeds our customer’s expectations. Red Hat and JBoss solutions have saved us an enormous amount of time and money. You can’t beat that.”

Industry: e-commerce

Geography: Seattle, Washington

Website:: www.go2marine.com

Opportunity: Determine a reliable, high-performing, and affordable platform on which to base its e-commerce website

Migration Path: Sun Solaris to Red Hat Linux 7 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Network
Hardware: Dell 1950 servers, Web/application servers quad core single CPU, Database servers dual core single CPU

Benefits: Realized reliability, high performance, cost savings, ease of installation and configuration, and enhanced security.

Opportunity
Mariner Supply first launched its e-commerce website on Sun Solaris servers in early 2001, but within one year, it experienced performance issues that affected the uptime of its website. Keith Fetterman, CTO at Mariner Supply, had experience employing open source solutions at three previous companies and recommended that Mariner Supply search for an affordable open source solution that could provide the necessary performance capabilities.

Solution
Mariner Supply quickly decided that Red Hat solutions would fit the performance and budget requirements for its IT infrastructure and in late 2001 rolled out Red Hat Linux 7. “We selected Red Hat software because I really trusted Linux in a space where computers are out on the Internet. Red Hat was one of the leading Linux providers at the time and it provided the necessary power and low cost,” said Fetterman.

In 2004, Mariner Supply decided to move office locations and purchase new, consolidated servers because it was rapidly running out of space for its hardware. “Our rack systems were going into a co-location center and we chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 for our Web servers. Our Oracle database servers consisted of Sun’s second-generation Intel servers and we switched those to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 as well,” said Fetterman.

Most recently, Mariner Supply has deployed Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 on its Dell 1950 servers.

Benefits
Mariner Supply selected Red Hat solutions for a variety of benefits, including reliability, cost savings, ease of support, and security. “We wouldn’t even be here today without open source solutions,” said Fetterman. “We need to rely on the open source service business, like Red Hat, to make our business possible. We need the security of reliable support and can’t afford to keep up with a free Linux flavor, or, if we had choosen a non-Linux platform, we would have had to purchase much more expensive licenses, more servers, and fail over hardware with the proprietary options on the market.”

Additionally, Mariner Supply has enjoyed the reliability and security of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Network. With Red Hat Network, the company receives timely patch updates and has the security of back ported editions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. “Red Hat solutions have allowed us to run a very efficient machine. We’ve never have to reboot our machines because Red Hat Enterprise Linux is extremely reliable – I can count on it working all of the time. Even though we have backup servers in case of hardware failure, we have not had to add real-time fail over because Red Hat is reliable and provides incredible uptime.”

For the future, Mariner Supply plans to continue its use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. “We will always keep Red Hat solutions on our front-line tier. As we grow, Red Hat will grow with us, and as we get more and more orders coming in, we will need to build up our support,” said Fetterman.

Industry: Research
Geography: Arkansas, Tennessee, New York
Opportunity: Replace outdated IT solutions with an affordable, reliable, and performance-boosting solution for mission-critical applications
Migration Path: HP 3000 series to Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server on HP Xenon dual-processors
Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server
Hardware: HP Xenon 380 dual-processors
Benefits: Reduced IT costs by approximately one-third, experienced high performance, enjoyed ease of installation

Flake Wilkerson operates a number of different survey sites in West Little Rock, AR, North Little Rock, AR, Nashville, TN, and Clifton Park, NY. It is an active member of The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), is certified by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), and recently merged with Market Strategies International based in Livonia, MI. Flake-Wilkerson’s clients range in size and function, and it conducts research for one of the largest telecommunications companies in the United States.

Opportunity
Flake-Wilkerson’s IT infrastructure was originally based on the HP 3000 series platform, which is no longer sold and for which support is currently being phased out. The research company was also utilizing CfMC, a one-stop research software and services provider, which began developing on Linux solutions. Flake-Wilkerson searched for a reliable, cost-effective solution to host its mission-critical data-collection system and web-based portal system, both of which require constant high-availability.

Solution
Because Flake-Wilkerson’s software provider CfMC was running on Red Hat solutions, the research company began investigating Linux for its mission-critical systems and explored a number of Linux distribution options. To the research firm, reliable support and affordable costs were extremely important considerations. Ultimately, Flake-Wilkerson selected Red Hat solutions for its reputation of impressive support. With Flake-Wilkerson’s multi-system IT infrastructure, Red Hat’s licensing would additionally save the company and its clients from high costs.

“Our data-collection system must be up and running smoothly for business from 8a.m to 11p.m., plus jobs that function overnight. Additionally, our web-based portal system that our clients use to see their research statistics must be up 24×7,” said Gordon Gidluck, Data Collection Manager at Flake-Wilkerson in North Little Rock, AR. “We’ve purchased support agreements from Red Hat to ensure that these mission-critical applications are up and running at all times because we can’t run our business without support for our systems. Red Hat provides the support that we need so that we know if something goes wrong, there are expert resources available that know a lot more about the software than us.”

Benefits
Since migrating to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Flake-Wilkerson has experienced significant cost savings amounting to approximately one-third of the research company’s original IT costs. “We’ve been able to reduce operating costs and save our clients money because of Red Hat solutions. In addition to cost savings, we have a newer, faster operating system,” said Gidluck.

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Flake-Wilkerson is also able to complete enhanced tasks. For example, with its previous HP3000 solution there was a concept of jobs, but after migrating to Red Hat solutions, Flake-Wilkerson replaced the jobs with csh scripts. In many respects, the scripts offer greater functionality. Red Hat solutions have additionally offered Flake-Wilkerson the benefits of ease of installation and peace of mind. “I’ve been very pleased with our Red Hat solution. The operating system worked right out of the box and included everything we needed. Our experience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been very positive,” said Gidluck.

For the future, Flake-Wilkerson plans to continue to implement Red Hat solutions throughout its growing IT architecture. Additionally, the Flake-Wilkerson programming team is researching the potential use of JBoss Seam.

Industry: Data Center Services, Internet Operations

Geography: Austin, Texas

Opportunity: Implement a cost-effective and reliable standard Linux-based platform with the ability to support varied architectures

Migration Path: FreeBSD to Red Hat Linux to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Software: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Hardware: HP ProLiant DL 100, 300, 500 servers

Benefits: Experienced hardware flexibility, cost savings, reliable support, and extended lifecycle of software

Background
Founded in Austin, Texas, OnRamp Access has been providing all of the services necessary to build, deploy, and manage Internet Operations since its inception in 1994. As an Internet Operations company with 25 employees, OnRamp provides its 10,000 customers with a suite of Data Center services, including Colocation, Managed Services, Web Design/Development, and Advanced Internet Solutions, including web and email hosting.

Opportunity
In the late 1990s, OnRamp was utilizing FreeBSD, a free, Unix-like operating system, when the company recognized a need for a standardized platform that could offer reliable support. The company explored Sun Solaris, but realized that the solution demanded high-end hardware requirements. The Internet Operations company, desiring a flexible solution, then explored generic Linux flavors, including Red Hat solutions.

Solution
Red Hat’s reputation for reliable support, long-term software lifecycles, and commitment to the open source community encouraged OnRamp to explore Red Hat solutions carefully. After successful testing, OnRamp implemented Red Hat Linux 6 in 1998 and has updated with each new version of Red Hat’s open source operating system. Currently, it deploys Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Today, when OnRamp customers are in need of a solution, the Internet Operations company strongly encourages the use of Red Hat solutions. “Whenever we recommend a Red Hat solution on a managed server product, we strongly encourage the use of licensed Red Hat Enterprise solutions because the lifecycle that Red Hat Enterprise Linux maintains,” said Don West, Senior Network Engineer at OnRamp Access. “OnRamp and our customers can rely on the fact that once we deploy a Red Hat platform and it will be a supported operating system for years.”

Benefits
After nearly ten years of utilizing Red Hat solutions, OnRamp has enjoyed a wide array of benefits. Red Hat’s hardware and software flexibility has allowed OnRamp to deploy applications and update and switch hardware when necessary without issues. Additionally, OnRamp has enjoyed cost savings, reliable long-term software lifecycles, and support. “The ability to call upon Red Hat support, should it ever be needed, is a great safety net for us. Many other alternative software solutions come without the reliable support provided for Red Hat Enterprise Linux,” said West.

For the future, OnRamp plans to update its internal applications, including platforms like its mail server, and intends to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the platform for its new solution. It is additionally exploring Red Hat’s high-availability solutions that incorporate clustering across multiple nodes in order to assure zero downtime. Though there is not an internal demand for the technology, OnRamp also has plans to explore virtualization technology for its customers.