The Consultant's Role

At this stage in its development, the Linux consulting business is up for grabs. Several of the Linux distributors have recently added consulting arms. Last summer, for instance, Red Hat established Open Source Consulting to provide strategic focus for Linux's impact on the enterprise arena. "Seven years of experience deploying open source solutions places us in a unique position to impact our customers' bottom line," Brett Pinegar, vice president and general manager of the new group, said at the time.
MandrakeSoft has also moved into consulting with MandrakeConsulting, which targets security and Linux migration issues for business customers. Other companies such as SuSE are looking to partner with consultancies. "We ourselves are not offering on-site consulting in the U.S., so we've set up a partner program for consultants," says Dryoff.
Typically the independent consultancies focusing on Linux are mostly small or midsized companies targeting a particular geographic area where there are pockets of Linux development. Linux New Jersey, for instance, operates in a part of the state that's home to many big pharmaceutical companies. "They're all looking at Linux," Ferdor says.
These firms usually deal with both technology and business issues, with the focus varying according to the client's needs. With a small and medium-size business client, Linux use is often restricted to acting as a Web server or e-mail server, and the consultancy offers soup-to-nuts services in these areas. "We provide everything the client needs to migrate to Linux," says Ferdor. "That includes advice, training, installation, and customer configuration."
Ferdor, as an example, worked with a client that has eight offices around the country. "The various offices had been using separate e-mail networks, including Earthlink and AOL," he explains. Ferdor set up a Linux server that functions as a central e-mail repository that allows all the regional offices to grab their mail from the same source. "That's difficult to do with Exchange," Ferdor says of Microsoft's e-mail server.
Another small consultancy and services firm, The Linux Box, operates largely in the Ann Arbor, MI, area, though it does boast some national clients.

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