Major Brazilian Bank votes for Big Blue, Linux

THE BANCO DO BRASIL said today that will consolidate its European IT operations by using three iSeries servers from IBM, and making huge cost savings by implementing the Linux operating system.

Banco do Brasil said that it will make significant cost savings and reduce administration costs by using Linux for its European back office banking systems.

The announcement implies that the current network file servers it uses are Microsoft based systems, because, according to an IBM representative, by implementing Linux it has enhanced "its reliability and availability and cutting back licensing costs".

Henrik Schlegel, an IBM VP of the iSeries division said: "They [Banco do Brasil] know that even in three or four years time they will enjoy high reliability and flexibility without any IT management headaches. Over 14.000 financial institutions in Eruope, Mid East and Africa have installed iSeries for exactly the same reasons."

One of the iSeries 820 server runs the bank's systems in the whole of the European Union from one point, the second iSeries 270 Domino server runs mail, for 250 staff throughout Europe, while the third 820 consolidates the network file servers and connects six Intel-based IBM xSeries servers, has a storage area network, and runs Linux for file and print services, said IBM. µ