Electronics Corp of Tamil Nadu Chooses SUSE Linux
Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Chooses SUSE Linux Enterprise for 30,000 Desktops and 1,880 Servers
Move to
open source software eliminates tens of thousands of
proprietary software licenses and reduces hardware costs by
25 to 80 percent
The Electronics Corporation of
Tamil Nadu (ELCOT) in India is rolling out SUSE® Linux
Enterprise across 30,000 desktops and 1,880 servers in Tamil
Nadu's schools, after ELCOT itself has migrated its entire
IT infrastructure from Microsoft* Windows* to SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from
Novell®.
“The open source software in SUSE Linux
Enterprise is superb," said C. Umashankar, managing director
of ELCOT. “In addition, we estimate that moving to Linux
has reduced our general hardware costs by nearly 25 percent.
In the case of high-end servers, the savings could be as
much as 80 percent. Even more important are the benefits for
Tamil Nadu's students. There is a growing trend towards the
corporate adoption of Linux, both in India and elsewhere, so
it will be a real advantage in the job market to have
experience working with open source software. It gives us
tremendous freedom and choice.”
ELCOT has been
procuring hardware and software for the various departments
of the Government of Tamil Nadu, which serves a population
of more than 70 million, since 1977. ELCOT's main objective
is to offer the best possible IT solutions at the lowest
price, thus maximizing the return on investment of public
money. ELCOT is also involved in consulting, implementation,
support and training to help meet the state's ambitious
e-governance objectives.
Before the larger and more
ambitious rollout of SUSE Linux Enterprise to the schools
and government offices across Tamil Nadu, ELCOT first
migrated its own in-house IT systems to Linux*. ELCOT was
immediately impressed with the user-friendly, cost-effective
and very secure SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. The
organization then worked with teachers to design a
pre-loaded set of applications which could be delivered to
the 30,000 new PCs along with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.
ELCOT also rolled out SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to the
schools' 1,880 servers, which are now 100 percent Linux
based.
Roger Levy, Novell senior vice president and
general manager of Open Platform Solutions, said, “ELCOT
was able to eliminate tens of thousands of proprietary
software licenses by moving to open source software, in
addition to their tremendous savings from making better use
of hardware resources. The decision to move to a new
platform rests not only on immediate pricing considerations,
but also on the potential long-term hardware, software and
infrastructure costs. Based on those criteria, SUSE Linux
Enterprise is proving its value to customers around the
world.”
The next-generation platform for the open
enterprise, SUSE Linux Enterprise is the best-engineered,
lowest-cost and most interoperable platform for enterprise
computing, from the desktop to the data centre. For more
information on SUSE Linux Enterprise offerings from Novell,
visit www.novell.com/linux. For more on how customers around
the globe are leveraging Novell solutions, visit
www.novell.com/success.
ENDS