In a move that seems contradictory to its heritage, IBM has announced a three-pronged initiative designed to move its customers to an open Linux/Intel-based architecture and away from proprietary operating systems, specifically Sun Microsystems’ Solaris platform.

It’s doing so even as the industry wallows in a deep depression. Ironically, Big Blue thinks the current economic crisis will benefit its initiative.

“As we move out of this tough economic time, a lot of customers have different demands. They demand flexibility, they demand choice and they don’t want to be constrained by economic constraints that bound them based on proprietary systems they’ve been on in the past,” said Jeff Benck, marketing director in IBM’s eServer business unit.

IBM hopes the Linux/Intel-based system will help customers migrate from distributed to centralized servers. The effort is aimed at Sun Microsystems’ dominance in the telecommunications space with its Solaris system.

Big Blue began the initiative by forming a 50-member team to “help customers migrate from Solaris to Linux,” said Benck. Concurrently, the company introduced two new Linux-based server systems. Finally, it announced a Linux cluster offering “which is really a very flexible integrated cluster solution for customers [who] want the system and solution totally integrated, pre-tested and configured and shipped complete to their location,” Benck said.

IBM is also spending money and effort at laboratory facilities in Oregon where independent software vendors and customers are working out the kinks in getting Linux into carrier-grade shape, Benck said. He promised those results will be shared with the open source community.

“It’s IBM’s investment to ensure that Linux is a robust platform and then the rest of the industry can benefit from the enhancements we make,” said Benck. “It does require some planning.”

He said he expects customers to migrate from other operating systems to Linux -- although IBM is aimed primarily at Solaris -- as they re-evaluate their systems economics. Deutsche Telekom has already made the move to Linux and Benck expects others to follow.

“Usually the decision starts at the applications. They’ll look at what applications are available on the Linux platform and, as ISVs offer more applications. It’s a choice for customers that are going to upgrade to make a decision about whether they want to make a move to the Linux platform,” Benck said.

The movement, he said, is just getting under way as a variety of forces – applications, customers’ needs and improvements to Linux – merge.

“By the end of the year and the first quarter, we will see some pretty strong carrier-grade Linux offerings that will even further support this migration,” he said.