At its Shanghai OpenWorld conference Tuesday, Oracle
announced that it will speed adoption of Linux in the Asian market by
bumping Asianux to its world-class Linux support program.
Oracle also announced that it is now fully certified on the Asian
Linux platform. The certification means that Asianux users can receive
joint technical support on the platform for the full range of Oracle’s 10g
offerings.
“Providing front-line support for Asianux is a key part of our strategy to
provide the highest level of support to customers worldwide running Oracle
on Linux,” said Charles Phillips, president of Oracle, in a
statement. “Now customers in Asia Pacific will immediately receive direct,
global support from Oracle.”
Developed by a joint partnership between China’s Red Flag and Japan’s Miracle Linux,
Asianux was first
announced last
January. A public beta release
followed soon after in April. At that time,
the two partners announced that over 40 industry vendors had signed
up for early certification on the platform.
Today’s announcement by
Oracle is the first enterprise application to have achieved
the stamp of approval on full certification.
“Six months ago, we set out on a fast-paced journey to develop Asianux,”
said Chris Zhao, acting president for
Red Flag. “We’ve been able to get to this point because of partners like Oracle who
have been first to commit to help make Asianux a fully supported Linux
platform for businesses in Asia. We believe Asianux will soon be the Linux platform of choice
for enterprises in China, Japan, and, in the future, the rest of Asia.”
Linux growth in Asia will continue significantly over the next few years.
According to IDC Japan statistics, the Linux market in China is expected
to reach $41.9 million by 2008, and in Japan $105 million by 2007.
According to an Oracle statement, CCID Consulting estimates the Linux server software market in Asia will
grow at a compound annual growth rate of just over 49 percent during the next five years.
Oracle’s other Global Linux partners include Novell/SuSe and Red Hat. Last month,
Red Hat and Oracle
announced
their Linux Enterprise Applications Porting center in Singapore.
