Server platforms Toolkit

The march of Linux in the enterprise

George Weiss, Edward Younger Gartner

Published: 11 Mar 2004 14:45 GMT

2003 Data Centre Conference Survey
Strategic Planning Assumption: Regarding migration from other platforms to Linux, 60 percent to 70 percent will come from Unix, 20 percent to 30 percent will come from Windows and 10 percent to 20 percent will come from proprietary systems through 2005 (0.8 probability).

Based on a survey of 143 Data Centre Conference attendees in December 2003:

46 percent indicated that Linux would affect their Unix investments in some way.

– 17 percent said they expect Linux to consolidate or replace Unix.

– 29 percent felt Linux would reduce their Unix and RISC (reduced instruction set computer) investments.

20 percent indicated that the impact on Windows would be less than that of Unix.

– 4 percent thought Linux would replace Windows.

– 16 percent expect Linux to reduce future Windows investments.

28 percent thought Linux would be incremental and coexist.

6 percent consider Linux to be of no strategic importance.

Still, the results serve notice that the Windows server market could come under pressure from Linux, because Linux runs on the same Intel hardware. That enables enterprises to standardise on reference hardware platforms and to decide whether Linux or Windows are better matches for their application and infrastructure needs.

Action Item: Customers should investigate special vendor incentive programs to migrate to Linux from Windows or Unix, and factor those incentives as part of the total cost of ownership (TCO) involving switching costs.

CIO Political Issues
Strategic Planning Assumption: CIO political issues will be one of the top three restraints (besides solutions and support) to Linux pervasiveness through 2005 (0.7 probability).

In Gartner CIO roundtables and discussions, a number of concerns tend to focus on the bigger picture. Key issues for the Linux community to resolve are:

Some lower-level managers are committed to broader use of Linux and open source, and they are pondering ways to convince, cajole or outright disregard directives, policies or other obstacles by formulating informal declarations on a reward/penalty system to propel Linux.
Linux was more of a default resulting from the chosen development environment as opposed to an active pursuit in platform acquisition policy.
Intel-based servers would be shipped free of an operating system with the final determination of the operating system related to the applications and development environment of choice.

Action Item: CIOs and higher-level executives must understand the deployment strategy from below and above the operating system kernel level, to shift the discussion to a development-centric issue rather than one based on tactical issues like supporting another operating system.