Editor’s note: On March 7, 1999, one of our
readers e-mailed us an editorial which Linux Today published from
the Standish Group’s private membership VirtualBeacon newsletter
but with the copyright notice removed. The Standish Group objected
to the unauthorized publication of its copyrighted material and we
removed it. See The Standish Group’s
VirtualBeacon gives new meaning to FUD. Linux Today apologizes
to the Standish Group for the unauthorized publication of its
property. Standish Group has now challenged us to publish this
editorial to rectify the situation.
The Standish Group Seeks Fortune 1000 Company
Running a Mission-Critical Application on Linux OS
Let’s all calm down.
The cacophony surrounding Linux, the open source version of
Unix, is deafening. While the number of Linux developers and users
is still modest, this group is pumped, passionate and shrill.
In fact, Linux legionnaires do have something to crow about.
Industry support for Linux is growing. In the last six months,
Linux has won endorsements from almost every major hardware and
software vendor.
Linux has been called the IT department’s “dream” OS because of
its rock solid reliability. Linux has proven itself in niche
applications at the low end of the server scale –chiefly on
departmental servers, application servers, network servers, e-mail
servers, FTP servers, print servers, file servers, Web servers and
for e-commerce software development.
In addition, Linux has a devoted following in technology
companies, where platoons of engineers can support it. Cisco runs
its 1,600 global printer network on Linux. Hundreds of ISPs use
it.
OK, so Linux is on a roll. But the hyperbole is ridiculous.
Outrageous claims that Linux will replace Windows NT within 12
months waft through the trade press. Three Linux expos will have
been held in the first five months of this year. Even the national
news media is spinning the story. All Linux, all the time.
Linux is on a roll, but where is it heading? We do not believe
that Linux is about to eat Microsoft’s lunch, either on the desktop
or as a server OS. Rather, Linux is more in danger of being
over-hyped and Balkanized by warring factions within the open
source movement than steamrolled by Microsoft.
The Standish Group wants to learn about the adoption of Linux in
Fortune 1000 companies. Awareness of Linux among corporate IT
executives is growing, but as far as we can tell, the open source
system is not being deployed in mission-critical applications where
performance requirements are stringent.
For example, data from our 1998 Demand Assessment Requirements
Tracking Study (DARTS ’98) of 379 IT executives in Fortune 1000
companies reveals that: 1) half of all enterprise applications run
in On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) mode; 2) the need for high
availability (defined as applications that run 24X7) is at its
highest point in the past five years; and 3) nearly two-thirds of
respondents say they can accept downtime of only three minutes or
less. For most IT executives, the per-minute costs of downtime,
recovery and rebooting are too high to bet the farm on anything
less than a battle-tested system.
IT executives find it hard to make a business case for adopting
Linux. Critical issues of scalability, worldwide support for
commercial users, version control, training and certification are
unresolved. Such uncertainty makes IT directors uncomfortable.
Is Linux enterprise-ready? (Yes, we can legitimately ask the
same question of Windows NT. Many experienced corporate users say
NT is not ready for prime time. The Standish Group agrees.) Linux
may be well adapted to print and file servers, but is it suitable
for running a financial institution’s global ATM network, for
example?
Can Linux replace high-end Unix or mainframe production systems
that host a company’s most important data and mission-critical
applications? At the moment, we don’t think so, but we’d love to be
surprised.
So, surprise us. Enter our “I Bet the Farm on Linux”
Contest:
Editor’s note: The contest is currently closed. Links to the
rules and entry form have been taken down at the request of the
Standish group.
Want more on Linux? Read our original editorial from our
VirtualBeacon(tm).