Linux powers Siemens Business Services global payroll

Siemens Business Services GmbH & Co. OHG (SBS), the IT service provider unit of Germany's Siemens, has completed the migration of its payroll system to a platform using the open source Linux operating system.

The HR (human resource) application, SAP AG's mySAP HR, is now running on the Linux Enterprise Server 8 software supplied by SuSE Linux AG, the German software vendor said Tuesday in a statement.

"This is the largest server farm to run a high-priority business application on Linux software," said Christian Egle, a SuSE Linux spokesman. "Until now, we've seen companies deploy Linux for Web services and file transfer, but they've had their doubts about using the software for mission-critical applications, such as payroll."

For the payroll application, serving 170,000 employees worldwide, SBS has replaced server technology and Unix software developed in the Siemens group with servers equipped with processors from Intel Corp. running Linux software.

SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 software is the first enterprise Linux platform to be certified by SAP for its mySAP.com technology.