Fully popularize enterprise-level Linux: a long way to go

Article title: fully popularize enterprise-level Linux: there is still a long way to go. Linux is a technology channel of the IT lab in China. Includes basic categories such as desktop applications, Linux system management, kernel research, embedded systems, and open source.

In the past few years, it has become a very popular concept to migrate commercial applications from high-end Unix-based systems such as Linux or Solaris to commercial x86/Linux platforms, but not everyone agrees that it is the best solution to fully popularize Linux in enterprises-at least not yet mature.

Dan Blanchard, vice president of business operations at Marriott International hotel chains, takes the Linux system very seriously. He says his company is migrating from a high-end HP-UX system to ibm aix, which is unavoidable. "We are migrating and planning to continue deploying the Linux system, but it will take several years to complete the transition to Linux. at that time, the technology will be improved and there may be other opportunities ."

Tony Iams, senior analyst at the analytics organization Ideas, said he had heard similar opinions from corporate IT directors many times. He said: "Our company has a long-term goal: to integrate all Unix systems into Linux." Ideas repeatedly stated that their goal is to use industry-standard technologies, this usually means running the Linux operating system on the x86 hardware.

However, Norm Fjeldheim, Qualcomm's chief information officer, decided to abandon the migration from Solaris to Linux. Qualcomm does run some applications on the Linux platform, but Fjeldheim's IT team believes that migrating enterprise-level Solaris systems to the Linux platform is an uncertain deal, he said, "We will not migrate from Sun to Linux. Because we cannot find the reason for doing so economically ".

Although the migration from Sun to Linux saves Qualcomm hardware and operating system costs, the cost comparison is based on the retail price provided by the supplier. "We do not pay in retail. when we calculate a discount for using the Sun solution, this price advantage disappears because Linux is very fast ." Fjeldheim said.

But this is not the only problem. His team is not very satisfied with the popular Linux management tools on the market. About one or eight months ago, Qualcomm's IT staff also evaluated Linux management tools that are said to make administrator work easier, but the result is "it is really not as easy as a Unix system in a Linux environment ". Moreover, Fjeldheim adds that this will bring more management fees.

Matthew Clark, IT director of Qualcomm, also participated in the evaluation of the Linux project as a member of the review team. Qualcomm's current administrator-user ratio is 500: 1 (although he plans to set this ratio to 450: 1 ). "In Linux, the administrator-user ratio is between 150: 1 and 175: 1. We will have to hire three more administrators for each current Unix administrator ." Clark said.

Iams was not surprised to hear this comment. "optimizing the system-this is a traditional advantage of Sun ".

Clark admitted that since Qualcomm's last evaluation of its Linux project, management tools have been improved, but he still thinks the Linux operating system is more expensive. "If we use the new tool from today, it may lead to two administrators next to each of us ". Clark said.

Although Qualcomm did not use Linux as a replacement for Solaris this time, Clark said he was impressed by the overall performance of Linux and said he would continue to consider using Linux in some environments, "We realized that some applications run very well in Linux environments," Clark said.

Not all applications are suitable for running in Linux, either. In some cases, he saw Marriott's Linux migration and decided not to implement the project.

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