SAVING ENTERPRISE IT COSTS WITH OPEN

SOURCEBy Utsav Babel

I.T. is expensive! In today’s business environment, IT is an extremely important part of business

Servers, laptops and other workstations are expensive hardware, and this cost is unavoidable

Software today is expensive too! So now, with expensive hardware, companies are forced to buy expensive software licenses to make proper use of their expensive hardware

THE CURRENT SCENARIO

• In an average corporate IT environment, you will find the following commonly used software:

• The Operating System (Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 Professional)

• The Office suite (Microsoft Office 2007, 2010 or 2013)

• Communication Suite (Microsoft Outlook, which is included in the premium office distribution)

• The Anti-virus software (Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, BitDefender, etc.)

Problems with the current scenario

Licensing headaches

Every installation consumes a license, companies like Microsoft have very unfriendly licensing terms. E.g.: Even if you have 10 Windows licenses and 10 computers and you reinstall Windows on one of the computers because of some problems, it registers as an 11th license

You need to agree to periodic audits from Microsoft even though you’re honestly paying for the software that you use

Each software package has its own end of life after which Microsoft forces you to upgrade the said package

Security Microsoft Windows family is the most targeted

family of operating systems and has countless viruses and malware attacks each day

Microsoft Windows is less secure against hackers that may steal your personal data for their gain

An anti-virus/ anti-malware software is always required on Windows and even that doesn’t assure of its secure functioning

The Operating System often sends diagnostic data to Microsoft’s servers, which may be considered a privacy issue

Unstable

Due to some problem or another, Windows is vulnerable to “Hardware conflicts” and similar situations that may cause it to be highly unstable for use

Windows OS has a very low tolerance for memory inconsistencies which often lead to something called the “Blue Screen of Death” or BSOD

Instabilities may cost business where deadlines are very important, like auditing

BSOD through the ages

Downtime

Require frequent system maintenance activities

Restart required for any major configuration change, which can be a big problem in case of servers

The Solution?

• Linux may be loaded with other great open source software like OpenOffice.org which work well as a productivity suite

• To overcome the problems posed by the existing leader in the current corporate IT environment, one may use an open source alternative – Linux

• Linux is equipped with almost every feature that Windows offers

Advantages of Linux over Microsoft Windows

ZERO LICENSING HASSLESLinux comes with no licensing issuesNo Activation of software or other time consuming activities

No frequent licensing checks onlineNo mandatory audits for license count verification

EXTREMELY SECURELinux is a multi-level architecture based operating system that has advanced permission features that are customisable for every operation

It is certified “hack proof” at several events such as the Pwn2own 2008 & 2013, where Windows based computers were hacked in minutes

The code for Linux is managed by skilled programmers from all aspects of life, it is verified and extensively tested for things that may compromise security

Linux is affected by absolutely no viruses at the moment. The number of viruses developed for Linux may be counted on one hand, i.e., under 5

EXTREMELY STABLEBecause of the multi-level structure that Linux follows, it is extremely stable and robust

Linux computers may stay on for months before they require any sort of maintenance

The structure of Linux throws away any chances of hardware conflicts or memory corruption

UPTIMELinux computers/ servers can stay on for months together and require no frequent maintenance

Any major configuration only required restarting of that particular “service” and not the entire machine

Even driver updates do not require any restarts

Pricing of Microsoft Windows along with the productivity office suite

Windows 8.1 Upgrade License with

Software Assurance – INR 7790/- computer per year

Microsoft Office 2013

Pro Plus (With

Microsoft Outlook) –

INR 14691/-

computer per year at the

minimum

Support cost is extra

Pricing of a Linux distribution along with the productivity office suite

• Ubuntu Linux 14.04? INR 0.00 per computer per year

INR 0.00 per computer per year

Support cost is extra but very nominal

• OpenOffice.org?

License?

Linux comes with a GPL, also knows an the GNU Public License, which specifies that the software supplied may be used, modified, repackaged and redeployed by any for absolutely no cost. One may not charge for selling a Linux distribution like Ubuntu but can only charge for the support that they may provide for it.

Say NO to Piracy

Microsoft’s expensive licensing costs indirectly force many users into pirating their software and thus breaking the law

Linux on the other hand is community supported and is absolutely free for anyone to use, if you like it and wish to support them, you may donate what you think the software is worth to you

Disadvantages of Linux

Learning Curve Involved: You may need to train your employees to be able to use it properly as it isn’t as popular at the moment

Proprietary software isn’t available on Linux (e.g.: Tally, but there are ways to run this on Linux too!)

Driver support for less popular hardware is very limited

The End◦ Sources:

◦ Wikipedia.org◦ Ubuntu.com◦ Microsoft.com◦ Linux.org◦ OpenOffice.org