Information Builders, IBM Resellers Promote BI On Linux

The privately held, $300 million BI vendor is targeting IBM's System z9 mainframe, as well as IBM eServer zSeries, iSeries, BladeCenter and pSeries. Resellers that have signed on with the program include CMA, Cornerstone Systems, Jeskell, Mainline Information Systems, MSI, NoviPro, Sirius Systems, Vicom Infinity and Yorel.

"BI on Linux is an important segment for IBM resellers like us," said MCI vice president of zSeries Solutions Dan Nassif in a prepared statement.

The program will focus on bringing enterprise-level BI to Linux to all of IBM's platforms, Information Builders said. The vendor expects the combination of hardware, software and services provided by the reseller partnerships to allow the creation of a BI package for each of the hardware platforms the program supports.

Information Builders' WebFocus product already supports Linux on IBM servers. In many BI-related scenarios, Linux is often less expensive to run as an operating system compared with competing operating systems, Information Builders said.