Pogo Linux Offers Custom Branding

BOSTON—Pogo Linux Inc. is launching a program designed to make it easier for Linux application makers to sell their products.

At the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here, Pogo Linux kicked off its Your Logo Here program, in which it will sell servers to the software makers, who in turn can load their software onto the systems and then sell the bundle to their customers.

For customers, this will ensure that the software they buy is loaded onto hardware that is compatible and that there is no user error in deploying the applications, said Pogo Linux President Tim Lee. For software makers, the custom-branding program gives them another option for selling their products.

“Linux software companies that want to sell applications sometimes find it’s hard because customers need to load the software onto random servers,” Lee said. “They don’t have any control. If it comes in a server, they can control the hardware.”

That means that ISVs’ customers who face problems with either the software or hardware can go to the software makers, who in turn can go to Pogo Linux to get the problems resolved, he said.

As part of the Redmond, Wash., company’s custom-branding program, Pogo Linux will ship the tailored hardware with the software company’s logo and color—both on the hardware and shipping box—include manuals, restore CDs and warranty cards, and control the logistics according to the software maker’s needs. Pogo Linux can do everything from designing and qualifying the hardware to branding and delivering it.

Pogo Linux has been doing this for some customers on an ad hoc basis for three years, but now is formalizing the program, Lee said.

The five-year-old company designs hardware for Linux environments, but Lee said the custom-branding program is part of Pogo Linux’s push to expand into a solutions provider that offers more than just hardware.

Still, at the show, Pogo Linux showed off new hardware offerings, including the eight-way PerformanceWare 5864 server, powered by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s 64-bit Opteron processor.

In addition, Pogo Linux rolled out a new storage device, the 12TB StorageWare 548, which features 48 hard drives and a quad Opteron platform.

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