Insurance giant goes live with Linux

In what is being hailed as the world's first full-scale deployment of Linux in the finance sector, insurance company, Hill House Hammond, has signed a deal with IBM to run the Linux operating system (OS) on its Netfinity servers.

The IBM system will roll-out to Hill House Hammond's entire 250-strong branch computing network - the order totalling 290 Netfinity 3000 servers. Hill House Hammond has chosen the Red Hat Linux OS with an application installation program designed by Pick Systems.

Hill House Hammond says it chose the Linux OS as it presents the most cost-effective solution to its needs. The insurance vendor - which is looking to compete with direct sellers such as Direct Line - is also maintaining a branch network, so being able to keep overheads to a minimum was a priority.

The company said it was also impressed with Pick Systems' configuration procedure, developed specifically for the Linux environment.

Peter Holland, senior consultant for Dale Strategies, said the deal was "very happy news indeed", for the Linux community. "Finance is normally the last sector to take on board new technology. This shows that Linux is probably now in every sector," he added.

Rob Hailstone, research director for Bloor Research, agreed that this was the first significant move into the financial world for the open source technology - and more bad news for NT.

"Linux has been bad news for NT for a number of months - this is just another first," he said. "People will be watching this carefully to see if it is a success."