Red Hat,announced that BPU Banca, the operational parent bank of the group Banche Popolari Unite, has chosen to implement Red Hat Enterprise Linux across its desktops and servers.

The bank is migrating all of its 8,000 UNIX workstation clients to Red Hat Desktop. In this project BPU Banca will replace Sun hardware with Intel-based PCs to achieve combined hardware and software cost savings of about 50%.

The migration of its systems from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux also delivers vendor independence for both hardware and software, assuring BPU Banca greater flexibility when implementing infrastructure solutions that comply with new industry trends and best practices. Finally, the migration will enable the use of PCs in dual-boot mode to support Linux and Microsoft Windows without additional cost.

"This project is one of the most important migrations to Linux in the Italian financial sector," says Roberto Semplici, Account Executive Red Hat Italy. "BPU Banca is a clear proof-point of the advantages guaranteed by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux product family, opening the path to future Linux implementations in this market sector."

Using Red Hat Network for the maintenance, asset management and security management of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems will allow BPU Banca to easily manage groups of servers and workstations from virtually anywhere via a Web interface. BPU Banca will conclude its migration from UNIX to Red Hat Enterprise Linux by the end of this year.

Future plans include widening its migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux to encompass the group's entire server infrastructure.