Selecting Linux for banks cannot avoid high costs

Recently, CCID has stated that high costs have become insurmountable obstacles for the migration of banking front-end operating systems to Linux. Saidi said that the TCO of the Bank's front-end operating system transplanted from SCOUnix to Linux is higher than that transplanted to Windows 20.9%. The main difference is the transplantation cost and management cost. The cost of porting to the Linux platform is 32.0% higher than that to the Windows platform, and the management cost of porting to the Linux platform is 33.7% higher than that to the Windows platform. In the TCO model designed by scid, the cost of transplantation takes into account the costs of system testing and development, data migration, and employee training. Among them, the system test and development process needs to solve a lot of library function problems, drivers and other system compatibility issues, etc. Windows is superior to Linux in the above aspects, the cost of system testing and development is lower than 25.0% % on the Linux platform. SCID also believes that, with the help of a dedicated migration tool SFU, users can effectively integrate the original Unix assets during the migration to the Windows platform, by combining with the WebServices technology integrated on the migrated platform, the Migration cost can be greatly reduced.

Currently, Linux standards have not yet been unified. the Linux system application environments of vendors including IBM, HP, and Sun are also different. The most commonly used database tools such as enterprise databases are also quite different, the costs of code rewriting, data migration, and background application integration caused by these specific differences have greatly affected the final migration cost. Research shows that the management costs (system management, risk management, services, internal development, and employee training) of system transplantation mainly come from risk management costs and system management costs. The system management cost of Linux is higher than that of Windows17.3 % because the system maintenance difficulty increases the number of maintenance requests per server. At the same time, Linux brings about a 64.8% higher risk management cost than Windows systems. For Windows systems, the seamless support of a large number of application software and experienced management personnel mean shorter downtime. In addition, Windows regularly releases vulnerability patches and other security warnings so that users can update their operating systems more quickly than open source software. In addition, with the deepening of Information Application in the banking industry, the delivery mode of a single product is gradually replaced by the application of system solutions. The proportion of expenditure on "services" is increasing. Currently, the market operation of Linux-related technical support services has not been fully standardized, and there has not been a standardized service system. Therefore, the cost of service implementation for Linux systems is higher than 28.1% for Windows systems.

Editor's note:At present, there is still a big gap between the Linux camp and Windows in terms of applications. Many IT staff are used to using the Windows platform and IT is difficult to easily switch to the Linux system environment. It takes more time for the Linux camp to develop good applications for users.