LinuxIT announced their exclusive UK partnership with SpikeSource, provider of business-ready open source solutions. US-based SpikeSource distributes, integrates, manages and supports open source applications to enterprises through trusted solution providers.

Peter Dawes-Huish, CEO at LinuxIT, says: "Our customers rely on LinuxIT to keep their open source systems patched and to apply updates when appropriate. This effort has demanded a constant investment as new versions and updates of open source software are being released frequently. When SpikeSource approached us about a potential partnership, it seemed a natural fit, enabling us to provide enterprise-ready functionality to our customers at low cost, and at a much lower level of complexity.

He adds: "LinuxIT's aim is it to make it simple for our customers to integrate and deploy open source solution stacks that are tested and supported, secure in the knowledge that the users benefit from easy-to-order, low-cost subscription models. Through our partnership with SpikeSource, we are able to do just that, bringing business ready open source solutions to SMEs and large enterprises."

Mark Baker, Partner Manager at SpikeSource Europe, adds: "While open source alternatives provide new opportunities for SMEs and large enterprises previously unable to implement enterprise applications due to the prohibitive cost of proprietary solutions, many SMEs lack the requisite skills and experience to implement raw open source applications. Addressing this, SpikeSource is working with LinuxIT Europe to reduce the amount of time and internal resources previously dedicated to installing, configuring and maintaining software solutions based on open source infrastructure and applications. The applications are pre-configured, integrated, tested and maintained by us and our partners, for simplified deployment."