Linux IT bulks up

Open source integrator grows by almost a half in 2010 as it strengthens management team

Open source integrator Linux IT claims to have bucked the downturn after expanding headcount and sales by over 45 per cent this year.

The Bristol-based Red Hat and Novell partner now boasts 35 employees, having poached several staff from household names such as Atos Origin and the British Computer Society (BCS) this year.

Chief executive Peter Dawes-Huish said the open source message was resonating well with cash-strapped customers forced to do more with less.

“Linux is no longer the geeky, technical domain it was,” he said.

“To help us make the transition from a small to a mid-sized organisation we have undergone a strategic change in the way we run our business. We have significantly strengthened our management team to support our growth."

New arrivals include Mike Curtis, who joins from Atos Origin to head up service delivery, and former BCS head of marketing Jeremy Comely. Curtis is helping to implement ITIL standards across the organisation.

Linux IT provides commercial services on top of the basic packages of Red Hat and Novell and Dawes-Huish claimed no-one else of a comparable size does the same job.

“The open source firms tend to be two-bit, four-man companies,” he said. “We also see larger SIs discussing the use of Linux with their customers but they quite often look to back off the integration to us.”