So what reasons are driving you to consider moving from your cozy UNIX environment that has
Reducing costs
Increasing flexibility
Improving performance
The
For most organizations, information technology is a business
When assessing IT costs, you are likely to be looking beyond just the initial cost of acquisition to the total costs over a 5, 10, or 15 year life cycle, incorporating training, support, and maintenance costs into the equation. Therefore, when considering costs, you are likely to be looking for a solution that provides lower total cost of ownership, rather than the fact that, say, the operating system is free.
In the current shrinking economy, businesses have to be more flexible and able to
Increasingly, applications such as computer aided engineering, risk analysis, and 3-D modeling and rendering are becoming mainstream tools, thus
The fact is that whatever your current environment, you cannot afford to avoid considering what you should be doing in the future. This is
In the current market, the alternatives are either to migrate to Linux or to
For organizations with a large installed base of UNIX applications, moving to Linux would initially seem to be attractive. The immediate benefits would be that you could:
Migrate UNIX applications with minimal changes.
Move to PC-based architecture, thus reducing hardware costs.
Acquire an operating system at little or no apparent cost.
While it cannot be
There are a number of companies that provide their own distribution of Linux, so you have almost as much choice of Linux builds as variants of UNIX. Linux
To make a true assessment of the suitability of Linux, you need to look at the following areas:
Do I need an enterprise-wide directory service?
Do I need to support clustering or load-balancing?
Will I need to integrate with a heterogeneous environment?
Will I need to use features on Linux that will tie me in to a single vendor?
Do I need consistent, integrated, enterprise management?
Will I require a
If you answer yes to any of these questions, you may find that Linux provides a less than ideal solution.
For many from a UNIX background, just thinking of migrating to Windows is tantamount to treason. However, if you take a look at the complete picture, you may find that there are significant advantages in taking this
The best price-to-performance ratio.
The
An
Integrated management and security model.
Rapid application development tools.
Built-in clustering and high availability technologies.
Worldwide enterprise support.
Large network of trained
While this list represents just a fraction of the potential benefits of moving to the Windows environment, these are probably some of the factors highest on your list. However, there is one main area of concern that is not covered here, that of migrating existing UNIX code to the Windows platform, which is covered in Migration or Coexistence? later in this chapter.
For more information on the detailed benefits of migrating from UNIX to Windows 2000, see the white paper at http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/interop/unixmgrtn.asp .
Ultimately, your decision on which path to take will depend largely on the risks associated with each course of action.
Specifically, do you choose an easier migration to a more
Many companies are starting to offer Linux-based solutions, and the Linux builds that they distribute are becoming increasingly proprietary in nature. Because these businesses provide the operating system for nothing or at a nominal fee, they must necessarily base their revenue models heavily on providing support rather than on supplying the software itself.
The economic realities of this business model mean that either you pay them for support and they flourish, or you solve your problems in-house and your supplier
By charging for licensing its applications and operating systems, Microsoft is not dependent on support