Thought you all might be interested in this article resulting from the
release of the Dravis group's report.
http://www.linuxenterprise.de/itr/news/psecom,id,9920,nodeid,8.html
I have pasted a rough English translation below.
Regards,
Heather
--
Heather D. Carle
Communications Manager
Afilias
E-mail: hcarle@afilias.info
http://www.afilias.info <http://www.afilias.info>
Report: Dravis Group shows open-source-solutions in use
With the report "Open Source Software: Case Studies Examining its Use" the
Dravis Group presents collected case studies for the use of Linux- and open
source solutions in international companies. One of the most important
results of the study is the recognition, that the desire for cost-cutting
measures is the most important factor at the change-over to open source
solutions.
In addition, many companies name that it is important for them to be able to
control the software and to adapt it in flexible way. Not revolutionary, but
evolutionary is the actual implementation of open source solutions runs in
the companies. Above all, open source solutions are being used to enlarge
the existing infrastructure.
Open-source-solutions are to be found in all implementations, data bases,
server applications, middleware, network management or ERP-CRM solutions.
One of the conclusions the report makes is that open source is no "magic
solution" and in the future open standards may become more important than
open source itself.
In the case studies, the operating systems FreeBSD and Linux have been used.
As data bases there have been available MySQL and PostgreSQL. In the section
mail, messaging and contact-management, sendmail and evolution was used. In
addition, the use of OpenOffice.org as well as Zope, Jboss, XmlBlaster and
Trolltechs Qt has been tested.
The case studies documents among other things the transition from Oracle to
PostgreSQL at Afilias Ltd., who relies on the open source data base for the
administration of the .org-registrations. DevlS, a provider of IT-solutions
for the US government, uses the solution Zope, Python, Java, XML,
PostgreSQL, xmlBlaster, Debian Linux and the Apache webserver. Interesting
is as well the example of the US Postal Services, that used Linux systems
for address recognition in 250 letter distribution stations, already in
1997. The deployment is still in use and covers more than 6.000
Linux-systems.
