IBM promotes Linux adoption in Kazakhstan

Stephen Withers
Monday, 28 September 2009 03:53

Business IT - Open Source

IBM has opened a Linux innovation centre in Kazakhstan to help promote the adoption of open source and open standards.

IBM's new Linux innovation centre in Astana, Kazakhstan aims to promote the development and adoption of open standards and open source software by business and government organisations

"Like many emerging markets, Kazakhstan faces the ambitious task of growing and enhancing its IT infrastructure very fast to match the demands of a new economy," said Inna Kuznetsova, vice president of systems software, marketing and sales enablement.

"Using open source and standards-based computing, Kazakhstan can avoid the pitfalls of an expensive, proprietary infrastructure and build a more flexible IT foundation to expedite economic development. The Linux centre will deliver educational and practical resources to bolster open source adoption and spur innovation," she added.

The centre's activities will include supporting the localisation of major applications and the porting of local applications to Linux, prototyping government projects on Linux, developing e-learning solutions for the Kazakh system of professional training, and promoting Linux and open source adoption in Kazakhstan.

"Open standards such as HTML, for Web and information structure; SOAP for Web services and SOA; and Open Document Format for office documents give businesses choice rather than limit themselves to closed, proprietary systems," asserted IBM officials.

The Linux innovation centre is part of a collaboration between IBM the Kazakhstan government.