Ds corfi
ot fw f ic
ssairu
nelt
gs By Carol Sliwa
Many IT
shops are reexamining
whether they
should make
the leap from
Windows to
Linux, or, for
those that
already have,
back to the
Microsoft
platform. The of moving some fairly critical
pros and cons M icrosoft Corp. has seeks in its Sun environment.
spent a consider- “Why should I take the risk
able amount of time,
money and energy applications when now I can do
trying to convince corporate IT what I want to do?” Haine says.
of each route shops that moving from Windows “I’ve had a huge investment in
to Linux servers wouldn’t make my [Sun-based] applications,
are many, but sense — but at least for now, it’s and people get nervous when you
not clear it had to bother. move onto a new platform.”
most decisions The heaviest users of the With even Unix users cau-
are ultimately open-source operating system tious about making a large-scale
came from the Unix world, switch, it’s not surprising to find
made based where the migration decisions that it’s more difficult to ferret out
were much easier because Linux IT shops that have made a major
on each firm’s environments are similar, skill shift from Windows to Linux.
sets transfer well, and develop- Migrations from Windows to
specific needs. ers can keep the same tools. Linux happen on a limited scale
Financial institutions, especially, with new Web applications. But
also relished the chance to save they’re hardly commonplace.
substantial sums of money by
moving to commodity hardware.
Yet even that group isn’t “Why should
abandoning Unix. Organizations
don’t walk away from years of I take the risk of
investment, says Dan Kusnetzky, moving some fairly
an analyst at IDC. The research
firm’s studies show that companies critical applications
generally bring in Linux alongside
their Unix servers, he says. when now I can do
Fidelity Investments, for
example, moved some of its what I want to do?”
Oracle databases from Sun Solaris — Haine
boxes to Intel-based Linux servers
because it enabled the company “Once a server application is
to merge database instances and up and running, it’s very unusual
reduce database licenses, accord- for it to be repurposed,” says
ing to Donald Haine, the former Jonathan Eunice, an analyst at
CIO and now a venture partner Illuminata Inc. “It’s almost never
at the Boston-based financial done, and that’s true of Windows
services firm. But Haine predicts to Linux and Linux to Windows.”
that the transition to Linux may The rare cases in which compa-slow now that new capabilities in nies do migrate a Windows-based
Solaris 10 will enable Fidelity to system to Linux, or vice versa,
achieve the server consolidation it illustrate why such moves aren’t
