InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
January 24, 2000
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The Linux operating system is no longer a corporate curiosity. But controversy over its shortcomings continues to rage.
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he Linux operating system is a study of contradictions. It's free, but businesses are willing to pay for it. It's feature-rich, but lacks some of the basic functionality IT departments expect. It's reliable, but few companies are running key business applications on it. Ultimately, Linux could succeed as an enterprise operating system regardless of its drawbacks--or fail, despite its strengths.Either way, Linux is no longer a mere curiosity in business IT environments. According to a new survey by InformationWeek Research, 26% of IT managers say their companies now use the operating system--up sharply from 14% in March 1999. Another 11% of the 300 IT managers surveyed plan to deploy Linux within the next year. That means more than a third of businesses use or plan to use Linux. Not long ago, "businesses were being asked, 'What's your Internet strategy?'" says Larry Augustin, CEO of VA Linux Systems Inc., a company whose initial public offering last year set a Wall Street record by shooting up 700% on its first day of trading. "Now they're being asked, 'What's your Linux strategy?'"
That's quite an accomplishment for a freeware operating system that was mainly popular with college students and Internet developers just a few years ago. In July 1998, InformationWeek Research surveyed 150 IT managers on their Linux intentions. At the time, only 3% had plans to deploy Linux in a significant manner within two years.
What's changed? Linux got its act together. Speciality providers such as Caldera Systems, Red Hat, and VA Linux Systems offer Linux software packages with integrated tools, removing many of the do-it-yourself headaches of a downloaded operating system, while major technology vendors sell Linux on mainstream hardware platforms or are porting applications to it. There's also growing availability of commercial service and support.
"If I had to do it over again, I'd do it with Linux," says Greg Jones, chairman and CEO of uBid Inc., a $204.9 million online auction company that Microsoft recently listed as one of its Windows 2000 reference accounts. "The issue becomes not only can you deploy the best technology, but what's the cost of deploying it? Linux is in the mix as a new solution for companies in our space."
The reviews are equally enthusiastic from some of Microsoft's closest business partners. Intel CEO Craig Barrett says his eyes were opened when an Intel employee hosted a Linux user-group meeting online and thousands of Intel employees logged on. "Now we're seriously looking at it for above-the-waterline kinds of programs," Barrett says.
As Microsoft gets ready to unveil Windows 2000 formally, it would like to muffle the Linux buzz. "It's not on the radar screen for corporate IT," says Aubrey Edwards, a group product manager in Microsoft's Windows 2000 group. "Windows 2000 is a single platform that starts with departmental use and scales up to enterprise scenarios. Today, there isn't a similar scalability story for Linux."
Maybe so, but users like Linux's rapid development cycle, high reliability, and low price. Though Linux is available at no cost for downloading from the Internet, IT departments are willing to pay $50 for Linux CDs, which can be replicated on multiple machines. Compare that with Windows NT, which lists for $149 per workstation upgrade and $439 per server with 10 client licenses. The savings can add up quickly.
What's more, users can modify Linux as they do its open-source counterparts, such as the Apache Web server and Sendmail E-mail server, tuning the software for their systems, and availing themselves of freely available code posted on the Net by the open-source development community.
"It's peer-reviewed software--the source code is out there and wide open," says Gary Calvin, a systems integration specialist with Kenwood Americas Corp., a Long Beach, Calif., company that supports IT and accounting functions for about 350 users at stereo manufacturer Kenwood USA and two-way radio maker Kenwood Communications. "I prefer to deal with the open-source community," Calvin says. "I find them more responsive and I can get the answers I need more quickly because they're not trying to cover their backsides."
Kenwood is running Linux as a platform for its jBase application, which lets the company quickly extract accounting, order-processing, and inventory data from a minicomputer and import the information into Windows applications. This year, the company rolled out Linux servers in its four factory-outlet stores to run a DOS point-of-sale system. "By going with Linux, it's a lot easier for me to remotely administer those machines than on NT," Calvin says. "That's not to say we're an open-source-only shop. We're going to do what's best for Kenwood."
Among companies that plan to deploy Linux within the next year, 72% say they will use it to run a Web or intranet server. That said, Linux is increasingly being adopted for other kinds of applications. Oracle reports 100,000 downloads of the Linux version of its Oracle8i database by developers, which Oracle VP of Internet platform marketing Jeremy Burton interprets as a sign of things to come. "What people are using to build applications with now is the same thing they'll be running them on in 12 to 18 months," Burton says. Linux is "cheap, simple, and doesn't overly burden the user with a lot of administrative overhead," he adds. "If one server breaks, you throw another in. It's almost a disposable operating system."
continued...page 2, 3, 4
Photo by Terry Miura
Photo of Augustin by Gary Parker
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