Lining up Behind Linux

IBM is betting much of its future on furthering Linux at the expense of rival Microsoft. "IBM has spent tons of money on Linux development," says Koetzle. By some estimates, IBM has already invested over $1 billion in Linux technology — and shows no signs of slowing down. It also has been registering a number of "wins" in selling Linux-based products and services. Last year alone, it claims to have signed on 2,500 new Linux customers.
"Clearly, Linux and other technologies of the open source movement are changing the IT and business environments, as well as the kinds of communities people around the world are able to form. It is also no exaggeration to say that Linux has started to change peoples' lives." This, from Bill Zeitler, senior vice president and group executive of IBM's Server Group, in a recent speech at LinuxWorld stressing that Linux was catching up to Microsoft in key areas such as Web site usage.
So, what's the significance of all this to the consulting community?
Short-term, consultancies that have already committed to Linux are now dealing with technology that's far more visible and credible than it was a year or so ago. "IBM's commitment is extremely important," says Dennis Hickey, vice president, global sales and professional services, with Lowell, MA–based consultancy and solutions provider Mission Critical Linux, Inc. "It really endorsed the Linux marketplace for the Global 2,000."
Longer-term, Linux is something many consultants may now want to track closely on their radar screens as a possible new offering. "There are a lot of opportunities for consultants opening up in the Linux area," says Holger Dyroff.

Breaking Down Barriers

While the efforts of heavyweight vendors such as IBM, as well as those of smaller Linux software distributors like Red Hat, Caldera, SuSE, MandrakeSoft, and VA Linux, have accelerated the acceptance of Linux in the enterprise area, other factors have also been significant in breaking down barriers.
Known for its power, versatility, and flexibility, Linux is rapidly reaching maturity, the Aberdeen Group pointed out in a recent report — especially with regard to areas that were early concerns, such as security, stability, and scalability. "Linux is now being developed at a faster pace than any OS in history," Aberdeen noted, stressing that while Windows is here to stay, Linux now presents a real threat to Microsoft on another front. "Despite Microsoft's planning for Windows to replace Unix on the high end. There is evidence to support the notion that Linux will leapfrog Windows as the future Unix replacement."

IBM is now offering a variety of Linux-based enterprise applications, including high-volume e-business transaction management, business process integration, and database management solutions. Moreover, many of the major independent software vendors, including SAP AG, Oracle, and SAS Institute, are porting their applications to Linux.
SAP, for example, is delivering its mySAP e-business platform on Linux. Computer Associates International now offers more than 50 solutions for distributed and mainframe Linux implementation. Even Sun Microsystems, which has always advocated use of its own Solaris operating system, recently announced that it was making an all-out push in the Linux market. Meanwhile, Oracle chairman and CEO Larry Ellison, who delights in tweaking Microsoft at every opportunity, has announced that he intends to run his entire company on Linux.
"There are now many more Linux applications running on Unix machines than in the past," Reg Broughton, senior vice president, systems and services, for Caldera says. "Linux is scaling up, moving to the high end."
"Linux has improved in its usability, and in other areas such as its graphic user interfaces," adds Dyroff. "The technology has become more sophisticated."

Perhaps the most compelling reason for Linux acceptance in today's faltering economy, however, is cost. For years Linux enthusiasts have been touting the cost-of-ownership benefits of Linux over Unix, and now some hard numbers are coming in to back up these claims. For instance, Linux has reduced the cost of modeling 3-D structures from $28 to $1 for life sciences company Structural Bioinformatics. E-commerce giant Amazon.com trimmed technology expenses by 25 percent by migrating to a Linux-based platform, saving nearly $20 million in a single quarter last year, while E*Trade announced at the end of January that it was migrating its enterprise architecture to Linux to cut IT costs.
According to a just-released study by IDC, Linux deployed on Intel platforms offers reduced total ownership costs (TOC) for hardware, software, and staffing of between 45 and 80 percent when compared to Unix on a RISC-based system.
Today, Linux has begun to make inroads largely in the telecom, retail, and financial industries, and can boast a small but impressive array of corporate customers using Linux for at least some applications. Among them: Lucent; Amerada Hess; Salomon Smith Barney; SIAC, the IT provider for the New York Stock Exchange; BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit); Toyota; Google, which uses some 8,000 Red Hat Linux servers; and Merrill Lynch. In the retail sector, Linux users include L.L. Bean, Tommy Hilfiger, Home Depot, and Burlington Coat Factory, which uses Linux to run everything from warehouse and distribution to back-office functions such as ordering.
Admittedly, some of these customers are initially using Linux exclusively in pilot projects, but more often than not, they soon move on to business-critical applications. "Once they get Linux in-house, they realize what it can do and want more," says Faber Ferdor, president, Linux New Jersey, a small consultancy based in Glen Gardner, NJ.

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.

Holistic Computing

Some of the consultancies that caught the Linux wave early did so to capitalize on its capacity to provide high-performance computing using so-called clustered solutions. Founded in 1995, consultancy and Linux-enabled solutions provider Atipa Technologies, Lawrence, KS, utilizes scores of Linux servers that collectively provide extremely high availability. "With clustering, Linux sees one big area instead of 1,000 individual users," says Atipa director Bret Stouder.
With this holistic approach to computing, the system doesn't stall or go down when there's a problem with a single user transition — because if one server fails, another automatically assumes the processing task. In addition, clustering provides processing power that's on a par with that of a "supercomputer," and is being widely utilized in places where superprocessing capabilities are in demand.
"We've got clients ranging from Los Alamos Labs and NASA to Princeton and Clemson Universities," Stouder explains.
These days Atipa, which plans, executes, and monitors client automation strategy, is extending clustering into other areas such as e-business environments for high-availability Web application needs, and has added business clients such as Motorola to the fold.
Started in 1999 by a group of Compaq, EDS, and Deloitte veterans, Mission Critical Linux also relies on cluster solutions. The firm, which counts EMC, Lucent, and Sandia National Labs among its clients, is more weighted to business consulting than some of its technology-oriented rivals. Its consultants focus on using Linux to achieve shareholder value for clients. "We specialize in a full life-cycle approach," says Dennis Hickey.
The company provides a full assessment of the client's existing IT system and then designs Linux solutions that can be integrated into that infrastructure. A proof-of-concept phase, during which the final details are ironed out, is followed by implementation. This includes installation, configuration, phased rollout, and training. Typically, the client proceeds on an incremental basis — what Hickey calls a "business case pilot."
Assuming that the pilot delivers the promised benefit, the client might then add additional Linux solutions. "A company like Amazon.com has a full suite of Linux solutions, but at this stage Linux usually represents no more than 25 percent of the IT in the enterprise client," Hickey notes.
Finally, Mission Critical Linux provides support service and will prepare a road map for future and additional benefits that might be gained. Like other Linux consultancies in the post- 9/11 environments, the company is also placing a high priority on security. "Security is much more of an issue now," says Hickey. "You have to make sure that everything has firewalls."

What-Ifs

For all the drumbeating for Linux — and its progress to date — the future of Linus Torvalds' operating system is still contingent upon a number of uncertainties that could sidetrack or slow its acceptance in the enterprise space.
For one, Linux doesn't play well in key areas such as the desktop, which is dominated by Windows and isn't suitable for some applications. "You're not likely to see SAP ERP running on Linux," says Reg Broughton.
Then, of course, there's Microsoft. The software giant has ratcheted up its effort to counter the operating system it once dismissed as a diversion for hackers and hobbyists, as it makes its own run to displace Unix at the high end with Windows.
What's shaping up, then, is one down-and-dirty battle between IBM and Microsoft — and another, on another level, between Unix and Linux. Ultimately, the consulting community will have a major stake in the outcomes of both.