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Reducing the TCO of IT with Linux?

Posted by Cliff on from the living-up-to-the-myth dept.

Bil Simser asks: "I've been asked by upper management to look at the feasibility of replacing our current Windows IT infrastructure with Linux. Basically someone has said that Linux is free so now we're off to see how free that really means. A full replacement is probably impossible, but I can see some benefits coming from selective replacement of specific technologies (e.g. application servers, web servers) that might be feasible. This is both from a cost reduction standpoint and increasing productivity when it comes to system management. I've already looked at a few studies done on TCO reduction on this and they look good so now I'm turning to the Slashdot community to see if anyone has either practical experience or informative insight into a problem like this? The objective is to determine the TCO of deploying Linux as a core part of our operational environment so what does that mean in the sense of hardware, software, middleware and management impact?"

3 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Changing from Windows to Linux... by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 5, Interesting
    ...basically means throwing away all your HR infrastructure, or retraining it. Windows servers administrators will be completely lost in a Unix environment (and vice-versa, of course).

    Also, before all the fanboys out there start screaming "Linux is better", consider this: the reason Windows server software is present at most companies is not because of IIS nor because it offers a secure server environment. It is because of Exchange. Although it has MANY shortcomings, it works, and even though it is perfectly feasible to use open protocols to accomplish most of what Exchange does, you will not have a clear upgrade path (something that is important to upper management, however irrelevant it might be in real life) and you will have to go through hell to do the transition.

    Basically, my opinion is the following: move your file servers, proxy servers and print servers to Linux. It should be fairly straightforward if you plan it well, or have a decent project manager. Leave Exchange for last and research the subject very well.

    Or post another Ask Slashdot :-D

    --
    Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
  2. Re:blunt by NeoEinstein · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah in fact, you're true. But I think your conclusion (== Money) is little bit to fast.
    Changing a whole IT infrastructure from Windows to Linux is not simple, as any other migration, but ther can be a TCO reduction I think. Though it won't be fast, it's a long term saving and the visible money saving may come up only after a few years I think. When you realize that there isn't anymore licence upgrading.

    Another important thing that I would like to add, is that you will need a lot human resources and knowledge, at least for the start.

    Hope I could help and keep me up to date about the evolution, 'cause I'm also planning a similar migration.

    Best Regards

    NeoEinstein /*** Got the name, waiting for the brain ***/

    --
    n-e
  3. My experience by chileno · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm the CIO of an insurance company. In 2000 I decided that linux was the way to go, so I hired an experienced Linux Engineer. We started with replacing mail, then proxy, web server, firewall, print servers, file servers, LDAP, net monitor (MRTG), basically everything that we called infrastructure. That took about a year, and in the middle, I trained my old windows guys with a mix of inhouse and outside efforts.

    At the beginning of 2001, we changed all development servers (with our testing Oracle 8i databases), and everything went sweet. So in april 2001 we changed our production server from a Sun Enterprise 5000 (4 Ultra Sparc processors) to a Quad Xeon. No more server crashes, no more high maintenance costs.

    • The final user is still using windows, so they didn't notice any change but more speed and more uptime.
    • The upper management is very happy with the savings so far (we reduced our spending by about 60%), and the uptime.
    • I am very happy with the solid performance of all our servers.


    Some interesting facts:
    • Our Company is one of the top ten in Venezuela.
    • Yes, we are in Venezuela.
    • We have only one windows server alive: it runs Metaframe.
    • No, I'm not an english native speaker. Corrections are welcome.