OpenReferent - a New Open Source Challenge to Microsoft Desktop Software

VDEL announces general availability of the OpenReferent desktop based on IBM Lotus Software

Vienna, Austria (PRWEB) April 2, 2008 -- VDEL, a Services Distribution company headquartered in Vienna, Austria, announced general availability of the OpenReferent Desktop Solution based on IBM (NYSE: IBM) Lotus Software and the Red Hat (NYSE RHT) linux platform. This Microsoft desktop alternative brings together the strengths of IBM Lotus software including Notes e-mail and calendaring, Lotus Symphony documents, the Red Hat Linux operating system, and VDEL document management application services.

The fact that the OpenReferent is available also with the Lotus Express products means that we are actually addressing the whole market - from SMB to Large organizations´ said Tagi Yapparov, General Manager of IT, a Russian Integrator. ´We see a great opportunity for people actually starting to use desktops based on Open source platform and to reap the benefits of Linux.

Customers finally have a true alternative to break out of the grip of Microsoft

IBM is committed to giving businesses freedom of choice and the interoperability afforded by open standards

Post of Russia, which has 42,000 post offices through out the country, can significantly lower the cost of ownership of the Information System.

The solution is a result of the recently announced new Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) software agreement between IBM (NYSE: IBM) and VDEL GmbH.

"The fact that the OpenReferent is available also with the Lotus Express products means that we are actually addressing the whole market - from SMB to Large organizations´ said Tagi Yapparov, General Manager of IT, a Russian Integrator. ´We see a great opportunity for people actually starting to use desktops based on Open source platform and to reap the benefits of Linux."

"Customers finally have a true alternative to break out of the grip of Microsoft," said Milan Prohaska, Director for Business Development, VDEL. "Security, reliability, scalability - OpenReferent beats Microsoft offering hands down on all counts. Total cost of ownership - at least 50% savings. And if this is not enough - the pure migration cost benefit of migrating Windows XP to OpenReferent versus migration to Vista, compels responsible IT managers to at least evaluate this exciting offering based on the world leading technologies from IBM and RedHat. The vision laid down a decade ago from these two world leaders in open source is now finally coming to a desktop near you.´

"IBM is committed to giving businesses freedom of choice and the interoperability afforded by open standards," said Kevin Cavanaugh, Vice President, IBM Lotus Software. ""The OpenReferent solution, embedded with the full breadth of Lotus software, is a great response to local market demand for affordable collaboration based on open standards."

Mr Pogodin, Deputy General Director of Post of Russia, said: "Post of Russia, which has 42,000 post offices through out the country, can significantly lower the cost of ownership of the Information System." Post of Russia is one of the first customers that signed up to evaluate themove from Microsoft based desktops to OpenReferent solution.

IBM and VDEL already started working together on the certification of their joint offerings to comply with government information confidentiality requirements. Red Hat Enterprise Linux server platform has already achieved an EAL 4+ security rating in U.S., Europe and Russia, designed to comply with government regulations regarding confidential information, such as data about the citizens and government figures.

Open Referent is based on the recently announced IBM Lotus Open Collaboration Client Solution with Red Hat.

Business partners classified as Red Hat Advanced Business Partners and Lotus-authorized IBM Business Partners may sell the Red Hat and IBM Lotus products globally with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription, and may additionally offer a six-month Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop trial.

IBM's Open Collaboration Client Solution includes IBM Lotus Notes e-mail and collaboration software for which more than 140 million seat licenses have been sold worldwide, and IBM Lotus Sametime, an award-winning unified communication and collaboration platform, including the industry leading business instant messaging solution. Integrated Lotus Sametime with instant messaging and chat comes with Lotus Notes as part of the core solution.

It also includes IBM Lotus Symphony, a set of productivity tools for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, and IBM WebSphere Portal, a server-based foundation for building portal applications and services, with optional accelerators. IBM Portals can be accessed through a common entry point via browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. Another key element of the solution is IBM Lotus Connections, the industry's first social software for business. The open solution also includes IBM Lotus Quickr, a team-based collaboration and document management software and IBM Lotus Expeditor, an Eclipsed-based Rich Client Platform (RCP) for developing and deploying applications.

VDEL GmbH, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, is a leading IT Services distribution company in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Russia. VDEL offers around-the-clock support, product translation and localization with maintenance of updates and upgrades, education and hands-on training, examination and market support. VDEL provides and distributes these and other related services through local value-add partner network that helps customer increase their productivity using selected vendor and open source products.

For more information about the joint Lotus solution, visit www.OpenReferent.org, www.vdel.com,

http://www.redhat.com/partners/partnerspotlight/ibm/lotus/, www.ibm.com/press/lotusphere, www.redhat.com

For more information about Open Document Format visit http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/wp-managed-client/odf.html

Contacts:
Michelle McIntyre, IBM Global Media Relations, Mobile:408-483-6681
Anna Androshina, IBM East Europe/Asia Communications, +7 495 775 8800 (ext. 1137), Mobile: +7 985 762 5372
Georg Haberl, IBM Austria, 43 1 21145 2265, mobile:43 664618 5966
Milan Prohaska, VDEL, Mobile: +43 1 478 75 05
Kerri Catallo, Red Hat Communications, 919-754-4268
Lucy Wills VDEL UK PRESS, 0797 472 9934 T: 0845 680 1928

IBM, the IBM logo, Lotus and Lotus Notes, Quickr, Sametime and WebSphere are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporate in the United States, other countries or both. Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Safari is a trademark of Apple. LINUX is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. RED HAT is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the US and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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open source desktop server red hat ibm lotus vdel open referent solution software suite

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