[nukkad] Interesting Viewpoint (Windows 2000 Offers Better Total Cost Of Ownership Than Linux)

[Net Geek <>]

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Nature never did betray the heart that loved her. 
-William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
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Microsoft's Windows 2000 offers a better total cost of ownership (TCO) than Linux
for most traditional server workloads over a five-year time span, according to an
IDC study financed by Microsoft. 

Just a day before the Enterprise Linux Forum gets under way in Boston, Microsoft is
celebrating the results of a study that maintains that the Windows 2000 Server
operating system offers a better cost of ownership for running network
infrastructure, print serving, file serving and security applications than Linux. 

According to the Microsoft-sponsored survey of 104 companies in North America, the
cost advantage of Windows over Linux for the four workloads ranges from 11 percent
to 22 percent over a five-year period. 

Linux demonstrated a cost advantage over Windows in only one category--Web serving.
According to the survey, Linux offers a cost advantage of 6 percent over Windows for
running Web applications over that same time frame. 

While Microsoft's Licensing 6.0 acquisition costs are significantly higher than
those of the free Linux OS, software acquisition represents a small
percentage--roughly 5 percent--of the TCO, IDC found. 

IDC says factors other than software acquisition cost--particularly staffing and
downtime--are the most significant factors when determining TCO over a long-term
period. For example, IDC says that IT staffing alone accounts for 62.2 percent of
TCO, while downtime represented another 23.1 percent of the costs. Software
acquisition, in contrast, accounts for a mere 4.6 percent of the TCO, while hardware
represents 4.4 percent. 

"The study shows very clearly that up-front costs, including hardware or software,
are not the most significant items contributing to the five-year TCO value," said Al
Gillen, an IDC analyst. "Think about it. How long does it take to surpass the cost
of software when you have a high-paid staff member managing the system? That staff
member cost is there regardless of what the original software and hardware cost," he
said. 

Expenditures for managing, maintaining, troubleshooting and restoring the systems
operations of a Linux server were, "in almost every case, higher than for systems
running Windows 2000," according to the study, titled "Windows 2000 Versus Linux in
Enterprise Computing." 

IDC attributed the Windows 2000 win to the maturity of Windows management features
and third-party tools in the marketplace. This countered the immaturity of Linux
system management tools and low penetration of Linux management platforms in the
enterprise. 

However, the report also noted that the increasing availability of respected
management tools for the Linux platform--including BMC Patrol, CA Unicenter, HP
OpenView, IBM Tivoli, NetIQ and Novell Zenworks--will likely improve the
installation, deployment and maintenance numbers for Linux servers. "Over time, the
gap in support costs between Linux and Windows will contract," the study stated.

http://www.crn.com/38852.html


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Bye,



Netgeek aka Cherian
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