Server Growth Comment
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| TxtEdMacs Nov 24, 2005 8:00 AM EDT |
Hate to throw some cold water on the parade, but IDC has been fairly sympathetic to Linux for quite a period, so this report internally is not necessarily biased. However, several questions come to my mind every time I read their surveys: 1. How do they get their numbers? 2. How reliable are those figures? 3. What factors are missing from a raw compilation? While I have no inside information on the first two (and they are troubling) I am left more confused than informed. For example, how are the Free DOS machines counted that Dell sells? Obviously Linux, but they could be counted as "other" or left out of the server counts entirely. With respect missing considerations: there are several obvious issues that a half way informed individual might leaven those numbers. It used to take several Windows servers to do the equivalent work of a less robust Linux server (in terms of components). I think this still holds. Next Windows machines in a larger company may be added at the departmental level at a price and internal components that may place it in a higher server range than where it actually is used. Furthermore, how many of those Windows servers are wiped upon arrival? In terms of costs and units Windows may still dominate. Moreover, on the basis of sales in raw numbers Windows sales may indeed be growing more rapidly, particularly when using only the OS with which the unit arrives. I am troubled too by the drop in the rate of growth of the Linux servers, because the last time I converted those percentages to numbers Windows servers had a three to one advantage in supposedly existing installations. From what I observed at a very big client Windows continued to grow, but where it counted Linux was the default for any new enterprise applications. That may have changed, but I suspect the fall back would have been Sun. I wish I knew more, but it is likely Windows machines are both selling well and will continue to do so. How many of you have been at a site where new management for the IT flashes through trashing everything and becomes an all Windows shop (nearly so in one case I observed) only to see several years later they have left the scene. Corporate upper management worked this way too, milking the company for a few good quarters and bonuses only to leave the hulk for others to sink with. |
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