Bruce T Guptill, managing director, Research Services, Saugatuck Technology talks to Biztech 2.0 and shares his views on the trend towards migration of mission-critical business applications to Linux-based systems.

Where is the trend towards mission-critical Linux most visible? Is it tier-I organisations, mid market companies or SMBs/SMEs?

The trend towards using Linux and other open source-based software for mission-critical environments is apparent in all types and sizes of businesses worldwide. Larger enterprises are definitely leading the way - as they tend to have more IT resources, and do more in-house applications and database development, which are the leading areas of Linux deployment.

There is also a significant increase in the use of mission-critical Linux by smaller firms worldwide, with the greatest concentration in the U.S., China and India at this point.

But, what is most interesting is the underlying reason that is driving adoption across these classes of organisations. Larger enterprises value Linux and open source for its ability to help drive innovation and not as much for its ability to cut costs, whereas smaller enterprises are mostly focused on the total cost of ownership (TCO).

How do Asian and particularly Indian IT executives view the migration of mission critical workloads to Linux?

Most IT migration happens as systems near the end of their useful life. It is extremely rare for Linux (or anything else) to come in and directly replace an existing system. Being relatively new to most enterprises, Linux tends to come in as an adjunct or extension of existing IT, often deployed for a single system on a trial basis. Where new systems need to be implemented to replace ageing systems, Linux is most likely to be a top contender.

We see aggressive adoption and deployment of Linux in Asian markets due to the significant economic growth, the high demand for scalable and inexpensive systems, and the widespread availability of development and support resources. Linux’s standards-based architecture, technologies and tools make it a great fit for such markets.

How is this likely to impact Linux vendors? Will they need to tweak their products and strategies?

The open source aspect of Linux and its attendant technologies, tools and skills means that established vendors will have to adjust their business models in many ways. Software vendors especially will be affected, as they tend to make a great deal of revenue in traditional software licensing. Linux, and other open source software, will not provide that license revenue; vendors have to abide by the terms of the public licensing agreed to by open source developers worldwide, or lose the support of that huge community. So, vendors will need to figure out new or different means of generating revenue. This typically happens through a combination of bundling proprietary and open source software with the necessary tools and services for implementation and support.

We expect to see some vendors emerge in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) arena that will combine open-source-based environments, operating systems, applications, tools, and managed IT and business services to deliver entire business process-based solutions and ecosystems for user enterprises. Under the covers, many of today’s leading SaaS providers (e.g., RightNow Technologies) deploy their solutions using open source-based infrastructure to cut costs.

Frankly, several of the Indian-based outsourcers are in terrific positions to develop and offer such solutions and ecosystems. We anticipate a number of leading Indian-based BPO providers (e.g., Infosys, Wipro, TCS) packaging solutions in more repeatable, SaaS-based offerings (supported by open source infrastructure), which in turn would bring more repeatable products to market, and around which a new class of Managed Business Services (MBS) will emerge.

Finally, open source also makes it harder for vendors to lock-in customers, as there’s nothing proprietary about the technologies or skills to keep the clients coming back. Vendors must develop new ways to add value to the customers, whether through IT or business services or they risk losing those customers.

How should users approach transfer of heavy workloads to Linux?

The biggest challenges centre on selection - selection of which version of Linux, which distributor/provider, and which tools and technologies to use.

Open source is a sort of IT bazaar at this point. Even the biggest and most influential IT vendors tell us that "there’s too much choice," whether from the user or vendor standpoint.

User enterprise executives should make choices based on technologies, products, and providers with known and widely-supported chains of development; and establish effective IT/open source governance policies and practices that enable the enterprise to manage which technologies are being used, and by whom. Proliferation of multiple technologies and providers within the enterprise, even if they are free and based on standards, will lead to significantly increased IT and business management costs in a very short time.

How will this trend impact Linux’s standing against conventional options?

We don’t see any operating system triumphant over all others, because there are specific advantages to each, and the IT world is so extremely diverse - and will continue to be so.

That said, Linux could experience significant growth in coming years as both a complementary OS that extends IT scalability and flexibility, and as a solid and powerful platform for new systems. Our research indicates that about 25% of new operating system purchases and implementations will be Linux by year-end 2011.