Server Operating Systems Report

Butler Group believes that it is time for IT management to take stock of their increasingly heterogeneous IT environments, and to look at the true costs that are in part driven by adherence to their incumbent Server Operating Systems. There is significant convergence of hardware technologies, and serious opportunities to reduce the TCO through consolidation of servers, and adoption of Open Source Software.

Very few IT managers ever go out to purchase an operating system. Whilst they might set internal standards for compliance and interoperability, at the end of the day, selection of an application for the business purpose is the main driver, with the operating system, and sometimes the hardware, being subservient to that choice. There will be less of a requirement for this compromise on standards, and potentially greater control, and management of the corporate IT environment, as more of the major Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are certifying their applications for the Open SourceOpen Source Linux operating system, which will run on a variety of hardware, from low-end Intel server to proprietary mainframes. Alles zu Open Source auf CIO.de

In this context we expect to see the decline in dominance at the high-end by proprietary processor-based UNIX systems from HP, IBM, and Sun, with the migration to Linux and .NET. There will also be significant consolidation in the data centre, with multiple servers being aggregated onto single servers to simplify management and improve security.

In the selection of a Server Operating System the availability of specific features and functionality are important, but other aspects are of equal, if not more, relevance such as a clear vendor road map, use of non-proprietary processors, and adherence to standards.

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