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Small And Medium Businesses Embrace Servers Running Linux
Although we are aware of Linux adoption by large enterprises,
most people do not know that there are sizeable numbers
of installations in small and medium businesses (SMBs) as
well. This base is set to grow as server vendors lob tailor
made Linux servers and applications at SMBs.
Country manager, pSeries & Open power, IBM says, "Unlike
large enterprises, SMBs do not have to face the challenge
of migrating legacy applications. The popularity with SMBs
has helped Linux grow at 30 percent globally".
The general consensus is that Linux did better in 2004
than anyone had predicted. Director Enterprise Marketing
& alliances, Customers solution Group, HP India says,
" As per IDC India, Linux in the server market grew
by 48 percent in OND, 2004 over JAS, 2004, while the windows
and Unix markets showed a modest 3 percent and 3.4 percent
growth respectively during the same period."
For any OS to succeed, applications need to be made available.
SMBs can be major draw for Linux servers as it offers them
lower TCO and tighter control on their IT spends. Since
many SMBs already have home grown applications, a proprietary
OS will be the single largest area of spending. It is here
that Linux offers a big advantage.
The availability of version 2.6 of the Linux kernel in
Red hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Novell's SuSE 9 will give
a big boost to vertical scalability. As SMBs become a part
of the global supply chain, they want enterprise applications
on Linux to keep their investment low. This trend will be
a key enabler for the Linux server market worldwide.
Why Linux Based servers?
Cost is a factor and Linux offers better security as the
source code of proprietary software is always kept a secret.
With a community supporting it, any security hole in Linux
is quickly found and patched.
Linux not only lets an organization save on software costs,
it also offers long term long term saving on hardware. Instead
of being forced to upgrade software with Linux, an SMB can
take control of its IT strategy. Chief technology officer
of IDBI bank says, "You decide when you wish to upgrade,
not the vendor, hence you get tighter control on your spending."
This can be particularly important for users, such as SMBs
that cannot afford to keep up with the pace of change in
commercial software.
Business application and Linux
There is credit to Oracle for driving the Linux server
market. During the early part of 2004, Oracle came up with
a value offering. It offered pre- configured Oracle E-Business
Suite special edition on Lintel Boxes for a 10 user License
for $36,000USD. The traction of this offering was seen towards
the end of 2004 when we closed a dozen deals that were in
various stages of implementation, says General Manager,
Oracle India. This is a testimony that SMBs are opting for
Linux servers. SAP is following Oracle in making application
available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Customized and certified
All server vendors including HP, IBM and SGI are throwing
their weight behind Linux and each has a SMB specific business
strategy with significant initiatives to lure them.
HP has announced that some of its high end computing tools
from the HP-UX environment are ported onto Linux and made
available to SMBs. This includes a clustering solution called
HP service guard for high availability of applications and
management tools such as Systems insight Manager(SIM) and
open view that offer third party integration. Additionally
HP is creating a reference architecture stack, including
hardware, OS, database and Middleware. HP certifies a stack
so that customers can feel more confident on deploying their
core business application on Linux. Linux servers are popular
in high performance computing(HPC) environments such as
research labs.
IBM has recently launched a new family of eserver Openpower
systems based on its Power5 processor specially designed
for Linux. The Power5 comes with a micropartitioning technology
called Virtualisation Engine(VE) wherein each processor
can be sliced into ten virtual partitions with each partition
acting as a new server. IBM's eserver Openpower 710 is a
single CPU processor with 3 HDDs and 512 MB memory with
RAID level 1 and 5. This eserver offers SMBs an affordable
alternative to higher priced entry level Unix or Linux system.
Openpower offers a 64bit platform at a price point of a
32 bit offering. We believe that it is the right product
for the mass market.
Sun Microsystems has the Sun fire V20 and V40 severs based
on the 64 bit AMD Opteron processor, which has been successful
with SMBs. It also offers the Solaris 10 Opetron combination.
Sun is aiming to position Solaris 10 as its trump card to
take the fight to commercial Linux with support - email,
phone and onsite - available at a small price. Advanced
scientific research, elite foods, Sage Design systems, Centre
for DNA fingerprinting and diagnostics, are Sun customers
running there core application on Linux.
Linux servers are used by SMBs for CAD analysis, CFD (Computational
Fluid Dynamics) and FEA(Finite Element Analysis). Linux
systems are rugged as they come with SGI Propack over and
above the standard Linux Kernel. This gives customers the
ability to scale there computing environments with independent
I/O, memory and power supply.
Banking on Support
Linux is getting traction and getting into commercial business
applications in verticals such as manufacturing, small banking
and hospitality. Availability of tally o Linux will result
in a new chapter being inked in the Linux server market.
Red hat has 950 ISV partners who develop applications that
run on its Linux distributions. Linux offers secure and
scalable solutions to meet SMB requirements. IBM has 35
to 40 pure Linux partners that offers consultancy and assist
it in integrating and implementing services for its customers
who are using Linux.
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