Only a day after flaming open source as insecure, unscalable and unfit for Australian consumption in its Agility Alliance, services vendor Electronic Data Systems Corp. has revealed it really does have a soft spot for the penguin deep in its heart.

Contrary to the stern warnings on open source delivered by EDS global vice president for Agility Alliance Rob Rasmussen, a case study posted on EDS" Web site states the "Linux environment provides a level of security and stability unavailable elsewhere."

"Because it is open-source software, it also offers significant cost savings on licensing and allows EDS to provide faster, more responsive support because programming problems can be diagnosed and repaired more quickly," the case study continues.

The flowery testimonial makes for particularly compelling reading because the lucky customer in question turns out to be none other than EDS itself, choosing to deploy Red Hat.

"Our experience with the implementation and the stability of the new environment enables us to provide enhanced security, significantly increase throughput and operate in a mixed environment - maximizing our messaging processes and ongoing investment," writes EDS senior consultant Richard Wilson.

On Rasmussen"s claims Linux has issues scaling across multiple geographies, the case study also makes some observations.

"But consider this scenario. Recently, EDS employees in Michigan, Texas and Australia needed to confer on a server problem at an EDS site in Sydney. Within less than a minute, multiple users on two different continents were connected. And just 10 minutes later, the server was up and running again. Before the messaging system was implemented, it would have taken more than half an hour to arrange a conference call."

Wilson reckons the EDS Linux scenario all adds up to pretty good value.

"We solved the problem in record time, at a fraction of the cost.... Now imagine that happening every day, for more than 137,000 potential users. The possibilities are endless."

One understable fan of the EDS Linux case study is Red Hat Asia Pacific vice president Gus Robertson.

"It doesn"t surprise us, we have many large [enterprises as] customers. Red Hat is a natural fit for a company like EDS," Robertson said.

The EDS Linux case study can be found at: http://www.eds.com/services/casestudies/eds_instant.aspx