Release Date: 19th May 2008
Ref: L0048

At a time of stability and excellent support in the Linux world, we can look back at the revolution over the last few years and wonder how we got here.

Revolutions create rapid change and, as in historical revolutions, it is often the first champions, themselves drunk with power, who become the victims of their ideals, are deposed and replaced by those able to carry on the values to a moral conclusion.

George Orwell’s parody of the Russian revolution, in the book Animal Farm, saw that equality is great for mustering support but when the old regime is toppled so “all animals being equal” becomes less attractive than the opportunity for some to be “more equal than others”. As the newcomers seize power, so they find it hard not to emulate some of the oppressive ways of their predecessors and ultimately suffer the same fate. Lenin, Robespiere and Danton followed paths to this end, to name but three.

George Jaques Danton is of particular note. He was a leader of the French revolution who, having reached a position of prominence, took advantage of his position and extorted money from opposing factions until his crimes came to light. His deposing led to a more stable and slower rate of revolution which concluded with The Republic.

Is Enterprise Linux the modern day George Jacques Danton of your datacenter?

Datacenters had been constrained in the past by the requisite UNIX hardware; its tenure marked by tyrannical expense. Applications often tailored for a specific hardware platform and with the proprietary nature of the operating system created a tie-in that made it difficult to negotiate a better deal; the power was with the institution.

The campaigners for open source had witnessed the broad acceptance of GPL software such as Apache, but it was the advent of Linux which embodied the ideal. The radical promise of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity from a ‘free’ operating system; its developers, the populace it was designed to serve, was just the insurgence required to break the stranglehold and relegate hardware to the domain of commodity.

But who would heed the battle cry? Until 4 or 5 years ago there were few datacenters willing to adopt an extensive Linux strategy; unsure their abscondment would not be rewarded by a dearth of support from a disorganized, albeit passionate fraternity. Everyone grasped the strengths of the open source model; the security, stability and cost savings, but the perceived absence of corporate accountability, critical in the event of a failure, inspired the Linux leaders to act.

The scene was set for the champions of the revolution to lead the charge and so Red Hat and SuSE stepped up to the mark. A shift in paradigm saw ‘their’ Open Source packages certified by ISV’s and hardware vendors but, more significantly, bundled with an update and support mechanism. Along with the version release and support cycles demanded by IT managers, Linux became the ‘not so’ renegade contender.

With the widespread adoption of Linux and the revolution complete, the libertarians looked at ways to ensure their dominance. Widely misunderstood licensing/subscription models allowed them to secure large support contracts by stealth without proportional costs and, all too often, poor delivery. Is it here that the venality, of which Danton was accused and ultimately guillotined, surfaces?

It was not until the release of Oracle's ‘Unbreakable Linux’, that the true composition of Enterprise Linux was revealed. The Linux model differs from the proprietary in that the software is free (the sole proprietary component of Red Hat Enteprise Linux, for example, is the logo) but you pay for updates and support. Herein lies a significant problem; software companies deliver software; they seldom achieve delivery of premium class support. Never more so is this evident than with Linux companies that have the added convolution of not authoring the software themselves. Nevertheless, they have grown rich on a model designed to overcome the ‘freeness’ of Linux whilst the support demanded by enterprise is still not apparent…… and the King deposer looks set to crown himself Emperor.

But wait! Whilst the newly enlightened commercial Linux market does not call for the head of Enterprise Linux, they lament the rise in support prices and demand a fairer model. At ‘The Linux/Open Source on Wall Street' conference in New York last week an anonymous IT leader said “Linux is getting a faster, better infrastructure but if these vendors want to remain a viable solution, they need to remain competitive with other data center providers. They’re getting like everyone else…. It’s getting so that the support and maintenance are costing more than the servers themselves. We need to drive competitiveness back.”

And that’s exactly what the industry is seeing. Mid tier Linux support companies; LinuxIT, Heinlein, Obsidian, Helpdesklinux and the like, are offering datacenters the benefits of stable, updated Linux software coupled with cost effective, localized premium-class support. This is Red Hat or SuSE Enterprise Linux software with the update subscriptions in place but the support replaced by holistic systems support. This model offers significant cost savings and tailored Service Level Agreements according to the specific needs of the customer. It seems once again the power is firmly back with the people.

In reality, few revolutions result in the achievement of the ideals that motivated the people to revolt. In Linux and Open Source, however, the fight goes on and those that would subjugate are on an unsure footing.

Peter Dawes-Huish
Peter is often styled as “The independent voice of Linux in the UK”.

Peter is CEO of LinuxIT Europe Ltd - winners of the Computing Award for 'IT Services Company of the year' in 2006.

Peter is also a member of Standard and Poor's Panel of Industry Experts as well as
Gerson Lehrman Group Council Member.

About LinuxIT Europe
Europe’s powerhouse of Linux Expertise. With strong leadership and senior exec from InstallShield, Microsoft and Compuware LinuxIT delivers business and IT consultancy services, solutions and support services to many industries including finance, Telcos and education.From software distribution to application specific development LinuxIT Europe serves in excess of 3000 customer, 14 of the fortune 50 companies in continental Europe and the UK.LinuxIT partners include HP, IBM, DELL, Unisys, NEC, Oracle, Novell, Microsoft, Centrify, Arkeia and Scalix.

For further information, please contact:
Ev Milker
LinuxIT
Tel: +44 (0)117 905 8718
e-mail: evm@linuxit.com