Norway's second largest city, Bergen, has decided to switch to Linux to serve as its technology infrastructure. Bergen is moving away from proprietary Unix and Microsoft Windows applications. It is estimated that upwards of 50,000 of Bergen's administrative networks will be effected.

Bergen's CIO, Janicke Foss, said the reason for switching to Linux was two-fold; it offered both civic and financial motivations:

"We are dedicated to providing the best possible public services to our citizens through cost-effective municipal operation. In addition to the IT-based benefits from migrating to Linux, we attain a business model that doesn't tie us to a single vendor's solution architecture. By migrating to Linux the city has a business model that is open and democratic, and we believe that will ensure a greater degree of freedom of choice, more efficient operation and major cost savings that will benefit the citizens."

Currently the Norwegian city uses Oracle database servers running Unix to support various health services. These units will be replaced with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8, utilizing HP Integrity Itanium 64 bit servers.

What will follow is the migration of applications relating to education to IBM eServer BladeCenters, with the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8. This will enable the city to condense its 100 or so servers that are running various Windows applications, down to 20 IBM blade servers operating SUSE Linux.

With the new servers, which are expected to be in place by year's end, Bergen will have a scalable system that can grow with its citizens. "The city of Bergen needed to do more with less while preparing for further growth and Novell, together with its hardware and software partners, were able to provide the Linux solution that met the city's exacting needs," said Richard Seibt, president of Novell EMEA.

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