Banks slow to deposit Linux in data centers

03.02.2006
KeyBank is an example that Linux proponents wish there were more of. The Cleveland-based bank is in the midst of a multiyear upgrade to Linux and expects the open-source operating system to be running on almost 15 percent of its servers, many with mission-critical applications, by 2008.

But Union Bank of California NA in San Francisco is more typical: Apart from scattered file-and-print and Web servers, it runs only a few application-monitoring tools on Linux.

'We haven't launched any true business applications on Linux yet,' said Rick Curry, vice president of infrastructure engineering at Union Bank. 'Most of us [in the banking industry] are still kicking the tires.'

In contrast with firms in the financial services sector, which was one of the first industries to embrace Linux and other open-source technologies, U.S. banks have been downright laggards. From branch-office systems to core financial databases, Linux has yet to prove -- to bank IT executives, anyway -- that in clustered configurations, it can scale up to match the performance of the mainframes they already have in place.

Even some Linux vendors concede that the retail banking market has been a disappointment for them thus far.

'There are not hundreds of banks using Linux, but we are seeing a larger chunk starting to ask the question,' said Kim Lorusso, financial services marketing manager at Novell Inc., owner of SUSE Linux AG.