Corporate users are taking a more pragmatic look at Linux than in the past. They’re stripping away the hype and finding the true cost, as well as how it stacks up against Windows in terms of reliability and security, according to a pair of reports released last week.
Companies say they are discovering fewer compelling total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits for switching to Linux from Windows – as opposed to moving from Unix to Linux – given improvements that Microsoft has made to its Windows Server 2003, according to a study funded and conducted by The Yankee Group. The survey of 550 IT executives found that users ranked the two operating systems nearly identically in terms of security. Respondents also said they could recover Windows 30% faster than Linux after a security attack based on available tools and technical support.
“What it shows is that Microsoft has made some real strides with Trustworthy Computing and patch management over last year,” says Laura DiDio, an analyst at The Yankee Group.
Info-Tech Research Group’s independent survey of 1,422 of its mostly U.S.-based clients showed that only 27% of midsize companies, those with less than a $1 billion in revenue, use Linux. The survey also showed that only 10% of those not using it currently plan to evaluate it over the next three years.
“Companies are past the stage where they view Linux as ‘free,'” says Frank Koelsch, executive vice president for corporate strategy and research at Info-Tech. “They understand there is a cost in terms of buying the product and for ongoing support. Although that is less expensive than Microsoft, there is a direct cost.”
Koelsch says most users are looking at Linux as a second operating system and not a Windows replacement. “Users are looking at additional staff or at the very least training for existing staff to support that second environment,” he says. “That represents a significant increase in complexity, including maintenance, stability, security and disaster recovery. It’s all the issues that keep IT managers up at night.”
While The Yankee Group survey found TCO gaps were nearly non-existent between the two operating systems, it also found 75% of organizations couldn’t accurately answer key questions that would have a positive or negative impact on their TCO decisions.
“No one is mandating the collection of all this pertinent TCO data that impacts their organization,” DiDio says. She adds that companies dramatically increase the risk of making a bad technology or migration decision when they don’t collect TCO data in a single repository such as how many calls are made to the help desk, how many break/fixes are there per year and measurements of downtime.
The 25% who did a thorough assessment found the most crucial events that affect TCO do not occur with the core operating system but at the application layer and with services, including third-party tools, technical services, training, interoperability and integration.
In The Yankee Group survey, users gave Windows a 7.6 average security rating vs. 8.3 for Linux on a 1 to 10 scale with 1 being the worst. That was a dramatic swing from last year when Linux hovered at just more than nine, and Windows came in under four.
After a security attack, users said it takes an average of 12 hours to recover a Windows server compared to 17.5 hours for Linux. And users reported that Microsoft has reduced the amount of time it takes to patch systems by 70% to 80%, mostly based on its new monthly cycle of releasing patches.
