Optus bets on Linux blades

02.02.2006
What began with single application, edge network services a few years ago, has exploded into core database and business systems at the Linux-loving Optus.

Sources familiar with Optus' infrastructure told Computerworld the telco has shifted much of its core server workloads to Red Hat Linux on IBM blade servers which now number around 200.

One source said the Linux blades are running a "wide range of applications", including the Optus Web site, some internal business systems like customer management, and 3G connection services. A mixture of internally developed and commercial applications have been deployed on the open source OS, including "a lot of Java-based applications" deployed on BEA's Weblogic or the open source JBoss J2EE application servers.

At the core there is an Oracle RAC database on four dual-CPU Linux blades - an architecture similar to Telstra's, which commited to a Linux-based Oracle cluster for data warehousing over two years ago.

"Optus is commissioning more servers on a regular basis which started in 2004 and has been building up ever since," the source said, adding the blade servers are spread across a number of locations around Sydney.

Optus is managing its infrastructure with Red Hat's satellite management tool.