Survey: Linux lost its price, security advantage in corporations

Boston (MA) - Linux deployment still grows at a rapid pace in corporate environments. A survey released by the Yankee Group on Monday however indicates that significant investments as well as increasing security risks prevent large companies to install Linux as their primary operating system.

Windows may not be replaced as the leading operating system in corporations for quite a while. According to the survey, which covered 1,000 system administrators and executives, 90 percent of companies with at least 10,000 users a total switch from Windows to Linux would be "prohibitively expensive."

"In large enterprises, a significant Linux deployment or total switch from Windows to Linux, would be three to four times more expensive and take three times as long to deploy as an upgrade from one version of Windows to newer Windows releases," said Laura DiDio, Yankee Group Application Infrastructure & Software Platforms senior analyst. Linux however could improve the total cost of ownership (TCO) in small to medium-sized companies, she said.

DiDio also noted that Linux is not necessarily perceived as a more secure operating system than Windows anymore. "We are just at the beginning of the emergence of Linux. So far Linux hasn’t been hit very hard with viruses or hacker attacks." She expects that this scenario will change dramatically in the coming months : "The worst Linux worm has hit 20,000 computers in 100 countries, compared to the Windows viruses which infect millions of PCs in a week. Many Proponents of Linux are concerned that the growing popularity of Linux will result in an increase of attacks. All things considered, Unix, Windows, Netware, and Linux are equally vulnerable."

Security is, according to DiDio, not just a matter of the operating system anymore. With more attacks ante portas, the human factor and highly trained staff in network security will become more important. "50 percent percent of network security is based on the human element," DiDio said. "You can have the best hardware and the most secure system and it all can be undone by one human error."

The survey found theat 29 percent of respondents have deployed lInux somewhere in their network - usually as single application servers and not as a primary server. 25 percent said they would add some Linux in the time to come. 56 percent of people surveyed however said they would not make any significant changes to their Windows environment at all.

According to DiDio, Linux is syill a threat to Windows, especially at smaller firms where flexibility allowed firms to achieve TCO advantages. The corporate desktop however is a tough goal : Until 2006, DiDio does not expect Linux to make a visible dent in Windows’ 94 percent market share.