Linux Gains Traction in the Enterprise World

A recent study conducted by the enterprise Linux provider SUSE shows that the open source software Linux has reached unprecedented levels of deployment within enterprise environments. The study surveyed 200 IT executives at mid- to large-sized businesses. Top reasons given for Linux adoption include its lower total cost of ownership (TCO), the higher performance of Linux and customers' desire to avoid vendor lock-in. The results of this study were posted on the Digital Journal website.

Twenty-one years after its introduction, Linux is now widely accepted and trusted within the vast majority of enterprise server environments, says the study. While 83 percent of respondents are currently running Linux in their server environments, more than 40 percent are using Linux as either their primary server operating system (OS) or as one of their top server platforms.

The study indicates that Linux is a popular OS for business-critical applications. For instance, many enterprises either currently are running or plan to run database (69 percent), data warehousing (62 percent), business intelligence (62 percent), CRM (42 percent) and ERP (31 percent) applications on Linux servers during the next 12 months.

Besides TCO and high performance, other factors driving respondents towards Linux for mission-critical applications include security and high-availability. In addition, support and in-house skills are others looked into when evaluating Linux. As per the report, nearly 60 percent of respondents agreed that moving to open source platforms like Linux will ensure their organizations avoid vendor lock-in.

In a statement, Richard Fichera, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester (News - Alert) Research, said, "It is apparent … that Linux has continued to mature nicely as both a foundation for large scale-out clouds as well as a strong contender for the kind of enterprise workloads that previously were only comfortable on either RISC/UNIX systems or large Microsoft (News - Alert) Server systems."

Commenting on the results of this study, Michael Miller, vice president of global alliances and marketing for SUSE, stated, "we knew Linux had come a long way in the 20 years SUSE has been in business, and we're pleased that the data clearly shows just how far. The relevant question today is not why or when you should be using Linux, it's where you should be using Linux.”