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Unilever Ditches Global IT Linux Migration

Posted by samzenpus on from the free-as-in-not-using-it dept.

GP writes "One to stir the open source debate. The CIO of global consumer goods giant Unilever says in this interview with silicon.com that the company has ditched plans to migrate its enterprise IT platform to Linux running on Itanium. He reckons hidden support costs and security issues have emerged over the past two years with open source and that proprietary vendors have also raised their game in response to the 'threat'."

8 of 295 comments (clear)

  1. Linux on Itanium by eyegone · · Score: 5, Funny


    Well, the problem must be Linux.

    --
    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  2. Sounds like a smart plan by BooRadley · · Score: 5, Insightful
    According to TFA, Unilever is not so much "going with the lower bidder" as stepping back and applying common sense to their IT decisions.

    "Unilever CIO Neil Cameron, said the cost benefits of migrating en masse to an open source platform are no longer as clear cut as they were two years ago because of security and support issues."

    Sounds more like he got his ass handed to him by an enterprise architecture team after attempting to push through a bad idea based on a flawed financial model.

    --

    -- lk t lv ll th vwls t f wrds. T svs lts f tm t wrt bt ts pn n th ss t rd nd mks m lk lk cmplt dpsht.

  3. Nothing to see here ... move along ... by legLess · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ... announced plans back in 2003 to cut £66m from its IT budget by switching from a Unix server platform to Linux ...
    But he said the emergence of Linux as a cheaper and viable enterprise option has been good for competition because it forced proprietary vendors to raise their game.
    Translation: "We wanted Sun to shit their pants and they did. Like my new Ferrari?"
    --
    This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
  4. No sweat. by quokkapox · · Score: 5, Funny
    That's okay--if Unilever doesn't want to use Linux, we geeks will just quit buying their soap, deodorant, and other personal hygiene products. That'll show 'em.

    Err... scratch that idea. They'd never notice.

    --
    it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
  5. Don't be fooled. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I worked for Unilever IT until quite recently.

    There was never a serious itent to migrate to Linux. It was invoked more as a threat in 2004 to get big suppliers like HP and MS to cut prices when dealing with Unilever.

    I guess it worked, and now Unilever can drop the pretense.

  6. Wait a minute by aCapitalist · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You mean open source doesn't solve every software problem?

    I found the "religion" comment particularly amusing. I wonder how many managers have been turned off of open source because they have some employee running around screaming about source code freedom and writing stuff in emails like M$.

  7. Re:I wonder. by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Think of us all as Honda mechanics, technicians and manufacturers of after-market parts. When a huge company makes a public announcement that they are switching their whole fleet to Hondas, and then reverses that decision, it goes a bit beyond "oh, what a shame, they don't like my car" and into the realms of "damn, there goes a bunch of future employment".

    Does it make a little more sense now?

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  8. Re:Rush to judgement on corporate-wide Linux adopt by Sheetrock · · Score: 5, Funny

    Two "bongs" don't make a byte.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.