HP's Linux competency center, in Bangalore

BANGALORE: In a bid to boost Linux solutions development, HP would be opening a Linux competency center in Bangalore next year. Currently, the center houses around 30 to 40 engineers who work on solutions such as Smart Frog (a framework for automatic configuration and management of distributed applications) and Nunit, a framework for .NET languages.

Plans to increase the Linux partner base is also on the anvil. Speaking exclusively to CyberMedia News, HP India Sales high performance computing and Linux country manager Faisal M Paul said, "At present, we have around 10 partners selling Linux solutions, which we plan to increase next year to 20 across eight major cities, who have dedicated focus on the Linux and HPC business."

He informed that HP had acquired good wins in the HPC segment this year bagging orders from TIFR and IIT, Madras, IIT, Mumbai, IIT Kanpur and GE Research. While the HPC market accounted for $four million last fiscal, HP expects a sales pipeline in the order of $15million -$20 million in Q1.

Perceiving a huge demand from the public sector segment for Linux servers, HP is also going after this vertical actively, Paul added. "We would be seeing more mission critical Linux applications moving on to HP's servers soon," he predicted.

About HP's spend on Linux, he said, "While we are also finalizing our marketing budgets for this business line, a total expenditure of $one million can be expected, which would also include scaling up its infrastructure for putting in place a Linux competency center in Bangalore."


Responding to the reason why HP's marketing push for Linux was low-key compared to close competitor IBM, Paul said, "We have a huge business around our UNIX and Windows based servers. We would like to balance all the three platforms. Unlike competitors we don't see the need to make noise about Linux."