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