Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and IBM BladeCenter allow electronics leader to reduce costs, decrease procurement time and prepare for the cloud.

IBM and Red Hat have announced that Casio Computer Co, Ltd., a leading electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Japan, has selected a combination of Red Hat virtualization software and IBM systems to effectively handle business management challenges and prepare its IT infrastructure for cloud deployments.

Casio wanted to optimize the global IT infrastructure within its business development department and create business models to gain a competitive advantage in its industry. In 2010, Casio installed Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Red Hat Enterprise Linux to enhance optimization of its IBM BladeCenter for increased efficiency and to develop IT systems tailored to specific sections of its business. Casio also plans to deploy Red Hat solutions for future endeavors with cloud software.

Before implementing Red Hat software solutions, Casio decided that utilizing virtualization would be a main goal while rebuilding Casio’s IT infrastructure for better competitiveness. The team’s mission was not to simply build systems in response to developmental requests, but also to optimize those systems, taking into consideration everything – up to and including the outward-facing business process of each department. Casio separated non-core business and core business during its system-building process and now successfully focuses more on investment for core business-related systems.

When Casio decided to virtualize its IBM System x servers in 2005, it moved from proprietary virtualization software to an open source hypervisor in 2007. Soon after, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, based on the open source Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor, was suggested to Casio and the company’s testing results convinced it that it would be able to gain the high-performance, scalable, cost-effective solution it was looking for with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization.

“We saw Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization as an ideal fit for Casio because it provides a key foundation for cloud deployments,” said Atsushi Yazawa, deputy senior general manager, Production and Purchasing Division at Casio. “With Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization on IBM hardware, we have been able to reduce costs significantly while also speeding up procurement, which has helped the company successfully handle business management challenges.”

As a next step, Casio plans to transition to a cloud environment. The company currently uses its own privately built consolidated infrastructure platform, but is also considering using a public cloud environment in the future.

Casio’s success is part of a growing trend of companies turning to open virtualization to save money and improve time-to-market as they virtualize servers, adopt dual-source virtualization strategies and build clouds. IBM and Red Hat are working together to offer customers open virtualization solutions to fit these needs that are affordable, enterprise-ready and easy to manage. Earlier this year, Red Hat announced the delivery of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.0, bringing industry-leading performance, scalability, openness and cost benefits to enterprises worldwide.

In recent months, IBM and Red Hat have worked together on SPECvirt_sc(R)2010 performance benchmarks, collaborated to achieve advanced EAL4+ security certification and worked together to establish both the Open Virtualization Alliance (OVA) and the oVirt open source development community.

“Open virtualization is important for our clients, our partners and the industry,” said Jean Staten Healy, director, Worldwide Cross-IBM Linux and Open Virtualization at IBM. “Together with Red Hat, IBM is working to help businesses save money and optimize their IT infrastructures through open virtualization alternatives.”

“From performance benchmarks to the leadership of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.0 to the widespread industry support for OVA and oVirt, open virtualization has seen increased momentum in the past year,” said Paul Cormier, president, Products and Technologies at Red Hat. “We have heard loudly and clearly from our customers that the industry needs an open alternative, and the combination of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and IBM platforms is well-positioned to meet that need.”

Earlier this year, Red Hat released Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.0, with significantly expanded capabilities for both its server and desktop virtualization management tools and its KVM hypervisor. IBM resells Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.0 subscriptions along with its support and service on the IBM System x product line.

Today, Casio deploys Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Red Hat Enterprise Linux on IBM BladeCenter.

Additional Resources

• Full Casio case study
• Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 60-day, fully supported evaluation
• IBM open virtualization
• Open Virtualization Alliance
• oVirt project

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