'India is a prime country for Linux adoption'

Worldwide chief for Linux at IBM Jim Stalling believes partners will be key
growth drivers for Linux adoption in India, and outlines a range of things that
IBM has put in place to empower them. In an exclusive interview with Goldie of
CyberMedia News, Jim reveals how India can shine on the Linux landscape.

How is IBM getting its channel excited about Linux in a similar manner
that the company itself is?

We offer a number of Linux programs, incentives and value propositions to
both excite and enable our partners. We also have a number of programs available
for partners who are ready to go to market. These include our 'Leaders for
Linux' program and our NT Migration program. These programs offer co-marketing
funds for demand generation programs, inclusion in our various events, linkage
to our sales teams and special education offers.

A majority of partners sell Microsoft-based solutions and they are pretty
loyal to these. How can IBM make them change their loyalties to Open Source?

It is not a matter of asking them to change (loyalties) but to add Linux to
their skill-set. This way they can offer their customer choice and the partner
can take advantage of the growing Linux market (35% per year) which is growing
faster then any other server OS. Over time, a number of partners will gravitate
to focusing purely on Linux or sell the majority of their solutions on this OS.
We have seen this take place in other countries and believe it will take place
in India as well.

What is IBM's approach with regards to evangelizing Linux among its
partner community?

The partner can earn money by selling servers, software and services with
their Linux solution. They can also help their customers cut certain costs out
of their business by consolidating workloads, reduce infrastructure costs and
offer their customers choice and support across all major platforms (xSeries to
the mainframe).

Additionally, as I talk to business partners who are successful in the Linux
marketplace, I keep hearing how their customers are experiencing greater
reliability and security with Linux over Microsoft. This helps build loyalty
between the partner and their customer as their recommended solution improves
the latter's overall productivity.

What are the main parameters that your partners need to evaluate before
they can actually plunge into selling Linux solutions?

As with any new aspect of business they need to assess their RoI on
investing in these skills and how quickly they will see a return. We have an RoI
tool available for partners' use so they can make an informed business
decision. It is available on our website.

They also need to carefully understand their customer base and find out how
many of them are currently running Linux and are looking to expand. If they don't
support these customers, another partner will. Also they need to assess how fast
their business is growing, and whether adding Linux can increase their growth
rate or not.

Is IBM looking at bringing Linux to the desktop as well? How and when is
that truly going to happen?

Yes, we are. We are supporting a desktop strategy through services
assessment for customers, besides a new offering around our IBM client strategy.
This allows customers a true on-demand client that gives them the ability to
work offline on all major applications but use the server as the central focal
point for the apps.

How do you see the Indian channel community evolving in days to come,
taking Linux adoption as an integral part of their solution offering is
concerned?

I believe that India is a prime country for Linux adoption. As the Indian
Government adds Linux to its IT infrastructure, it will influence more companies
to add Linux to their infrastructures as well. This will create new
opportunities for business partners to take advantage of the same.