Linux servers vs. Windows servers
In a study of over 200 Linux server organisations, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) found that Linux doesnt have a higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than Windows. Sophisticated management tools now allow Linux management to be fast, effective and inexpensive. With far lower acquisition costs, Linux servers are a cost-effective alternative to Windows.
EMA analysed the cost factors cited in previous studies and found the following results:
- Provisioning one third of Linux administrators can provision a Linux server in less than 30 minutes.
- Patch management sophisticated management tools reduce the amount of time Linux administrators spend on patch management (less than 5 minutes per server per week).
- Configuration management respondents have more versions of Windows than Linux servers. There is no impact on Linux management when supporting multiple versions of a given distribution.
- Reliability many Linux administrators (17%) report no downtime at all and the majority of respondents reported 99.99% or higher availability for their Linux systems.
- Problem resolution in a significant amount of cases, problems in Linux servers are diagnosed and repaired in less than 30 minutes, over 8 times faster than the industry average.
- Management and support respondents with sophisticated management tools all report Linux management is the same or easier than Windows management. 97% of people believe the management of both systems is the same. 88% of organisations with Linux and Windows spend less effort managing Linux servers.
- Storage management organisations with sophisticated management tools did not find any significant difference in storage management effort or utilisation for either Windows or Linux.
- Resource costs - salaries for combined Linux/Windows administrators are only marginally higher than for Linux-only administrators. Linux server skills are readily available.
- Consulting and training costs 79% of organisations spent nothing on Linux server consulting, and 63% spent nothing on training.
Details of the issues facing Linux servers can be found here or request more information online.
