Red Hat Migration Center

IBM® AIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Is your IT ecosystem in danger of becoming too dependent on a single vendor? With the increase in vendor consolidation during these turbulent economic times, we hear vendor lock-in is a concern for more customers than ever before. And for good reason. Becoming too dependent on a single vendor can put you at a huge disadvantage, making you increasingly vulnerable to cost increases and limiting your options to do what's best for your business.

Migrating from IBM® AIX to alternatives based on free, industry-wide standards will not only help you control IT costs, but also help scale your IT ecosystem. Red Hat offers the sensible low-risk, high value alternative. Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been successfully replacing traditional UNIX workloads across the enterprise--reducing operating costs and offering hardware vendor neutrality and increased flexibility for customers large and small across the world.

Tools and Resources

Browse through our ever-expanding list of whitepapers, online tools, on-demand webinars and more. (Some of these require registration.)

Strategic Migration Guide

Developed by Red Hat's global team of architects and enterprise consultants, this comprehensive guide details the recommended process for moving from IBM® AIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux AP. It includes the planning steps that should be taken when preparing for such a migration as well as common implementation and training standards and best practices.

Quick Guides

Whitepapers

Webinars

Migrate to Enterprise Linux in Six Steps

  • Deploy a test lab or pilot project. Many customers opt for a test lab approach where a small number of application environments can be evaluated on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
  • Qualify your software stack. Only after all software components are qualified on Red Hat Enterprise Linux should a migration proceed. Thousands of third-party software applications are certified to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and can be checked in our online software catalog.
  • Port your in-house applications. Porting of code from UNIX to Linux is typically straightforward. Red Hat ships with a broad range of developer tools and compilers to accelerate the effort.
  • Train your IT staff. Key staff should be trained as early in the process as possible. Learn more about Red Hat Training, and encourage relevant administrators to take a free online pre-assessment test to determine their specific course level.
  • Prepare a Red Hat Enterprise Linux standard build. Current provisioning methods using KickStart are able to codify organizational requirements in a flexible and repeatable manner.
  • Deploy a pilot. Install the target systems using a repeatable provisioning (closed-loop) approach, leveraging Red Hat Network to ensure fully-up-to-date provisioning.

For more detail on how to migrate from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in six steps, download the whitepaper.

Start a conversation with Red Hat

Every migration project, no matter the size or scope, requires detailed planning to ensure success. Understanding the risks, savings, and cost structure of a migration project is critical if you are to accurately project net improvements and realize actual return on your IT investment.

When you are ready to embark on your Solaris to Enterprise Linux migration, we encourage you to give us a call to discuss how Red Hat can help you make the right decisions from the start, reduce risk, and accelerate the impact of your deployed technology.

Success Stories

Red Hat has helped many customers--including growing businesses, government agencies, and Fortune 100 enterprises--develop and execute Red Hat Enterprise Linux migration plans. These companies successfully reduced both capital expenditures and operating expenditures while improving operational flexibility and efficiency. Here are their stories.

Florida Hospital Enhances IT Performance and Patient Care with Red Hat Virtualization Technology and Consulting

Seeking to Design a new disaster-recovery system that would ensure seamless business continuity for the hospital while also delivering high-performance, secure, cost-effective systems to ensure optimized patient care Florida Hospital leveraged the deep skills of Red Hat Consulting to migrate from IBM AIX to the price and performance advantages of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Union Bank Migrates from IBM AIX and WebSphere to Red Hat and Jboss Solutions

"In addition to its ability to scale, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has rock-solid reliability and has been extremely stable. Our decision to standardize on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux infrastructure was key to enabling rapid business growth while maintaining customer service levels." - Thomas McGinnis, platform engineer, PNC (formerly National City Corporation)

Orange County Public Schools Gives Red Hat on SAP an A+

Running on a costly AIX server that required an expensive maintenance contract which frustrated OCPS's IT department while draining taxpayer money, OCPS decided to migrate to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The French Ministry for Education Adopts Red Hat Solutions

Migrating from IBM AIX, the French Ministry selects open source solutions to avoid vendor lock-in, equipping all of its local education authorities with Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers.

Read why other customers migrated from IBM AIX and other UNIX variants to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Red Hat Consulting Offering

Red Hat Consulting is pleased to a strategic AIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux offering to accelerate and optimize your migration efforts.

Red Hat Consulting - Strategic Migration Planning Solution

Red Hat's Strategic Migration Planning provides you the product expertise and strategic roadmap for an efficient migration from AIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The duration of the engagement is based specific business needs, with engagements typically spanning 3 to 6 months. During the engagement, a Red Hat architect with deep product expertise will work with you to define a streamlined migration strategy that encompasses your complete solution stack, identify high risk mitigators, and speed time-to-production.