Atari’s CIO looks at Linux as historic cost-saving opportunity.
Three decades ago, Atari was the pioneer in video-game systems. A lot has changed since then–Pong isn’t quite the draw it was in 1975–but Atari Inc. hasn’t given up on progressive thinking. The company, now a division of French video-game maker Infogrames Entertainment SA, has over the past year set its sights on using Linux. It’s using the open-source operating system to cut costs on both Web-hosting and enterprise applications.
Using Linux is hardly the stuff of technology trailblazing these days, but the significance of open source’s impact on enterprise IT operations can’t be underestimated, Atari CIO Glenn Magala says. “I’ve never seen this kind of opportunity for improving IT operations and achieving cost savings through a change in platform, not even when the [IBM] AS/400 came out,” Magala says.
