Enterprise open source Toolkit

Assessing the scalability of open source

Tags:
Open Source

Deb Shinder Tech Republic

Published: 21 Dec 2006 11:39 GMT

…and those who are skilled in Windows administration but have little experience with open source — are not particularly warmly welcomed.

In the past, many open-source users projected a somewhat elitist attitude and scorned anyone who found recompiling kernels "too difficult" or who wanted an intuitive graphical interface. In recent years, open-source advocates have opened up their doors more and started recruiting average users as well as techies, perhaps realising that the more successful users are when they try open-source software, the more widespread and respected open source will become. This has led to the development of much more user-friendly open source programs.

Deploying open source in the small-business environment
The trend toward making things more user-friendly makes it easier to deploy open source in small-business environments, where you may not have highly skilled full-time IT personnel. However, just because it's free or low cost doesn't mean you should treat it more casually than expensive proprietary software. Planning and testing are just as important (and perhaps more so, when dealing with inexperienced users) as with any other software.

Small businesses may find it easier to start with open-source servers, sticking with Windows (and/or Macintosh) on the desktop. This avoids the problem of the end-user learning curve, and if you have only a handful of desktops, they are likely to come with an operating system installed. Even if not, the cost difference for desktop operating systems for 10 computers, for example, may be less than the cost difference for a single instance of a server OS. You can still save money by using productivity applications such as OpenOffice that run on Windows.

Deploying open source in the enterprise
In an enterprise environment, the sheer volume of machines makes any change in operating systems and applications a costly and time-consuming undertaking. Whether you're switching to open source for servers, the desktop, applications, or all of the above, you should first test all the new software thoroughly in a lab environment and then run a pilot programme with one department or group of users, before rolling out the change on a large scale.

The best time to make such a change is when you would otherwise be upgrading your current software. For example, if the operating system you'’re using is at the end of its support life and you're about to be forced into upgrading to a new version, that's the most cost-effective time to make the switch to open source.

Other deployment considerations
Switching to open source doesn't have to mean you're "out there on your own". Vendors such as HP and IBM offer services to customise and integrate Linux/Unix software and hardware, perform on-site installation and assist with migration, training and support.

Summary
Open source software provides both benefits and challenges to organisations of all sizes. Properly chosen and deployed, open-source operating systems and applications can scale to meet almost any need in both the server and desktop space.