Open Referent is a VDEL solution based on IBM Lotus Notes with Lotus
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"This is important because it's a secure and cost-effective Microsoft desktop alternative," said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president, Lotus Software, IBM. "It's for organizations in an key emerging market; and it's another example of IBM's OEM strategy paying off for our customers and their customers." Cavanaugh added that Open Referent comes as a response to requests from customers that they need an alternative offering to Microsoft that includes all the components -- operating system, e-mail, calendaring, office productivity tools, and document management.
"OpenReferent is a highly competitive alternative to Microsoft offerings for large organizations," said Oleg Churko, Director of Research Institute for Information Security, Minsk, Byelorussia. "Taking into account the unmatched security offered by the Linux platform, it will set a new standard for document management. We are also very happy the IBM is again taking the lead in offering full solutions based on Open Source, while mounting a real challenge to Microsoft in this arena."
Aleksandar Spagnut, Director RusHotel from Moscow, Russia, added, "We are extremely excited that we finally have an alternative document management offering to Microsoft based on Open Source that fits our needs -- collaboration of multiple offices in large territory, information security, scalability and, last but not least excellent price and performance. We are already starting to implement this and are happy that IBM is again taking the lead in providing a total solution for the small and medium sized market based on Open Source."
Open Referent "further expands IBM's commitment to providing customer choice through Linux, from the server to the desktop," said Inna Kuznetsova, cross-IBM Linux executive. It "will deliver a powerful suite of Lotus products, coupled with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop, so that businesses in Russia will now have choice and an alternative to Microsoft."
IBM, Red hat and VDEL are also working together on the certification of their joint offerings to comply with government information confidentiality requirements. Red Hat server and desktop platform has already achieved a 4+ security rating in the U.S., Europe and Russia, helping it to comply with government regulations regarding confidential information, such as data about the citizens and government figures.