| Where You'll Find Linux in Your Network |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by James Gaskin | |||
| Saturday, 04 March 2006 01:26 | |||
 Linux systems provide the best technical answer for a variety of enterprise applications, such as Web and email servers and utility server functions. The Web grew because of Apache Web software on Linux servers, and the majority of Internet email moves through service providers over Linux servers. Even the most Windows-centric computer room needs help with such services as DNS, DHCP, and LDAP, and Linux systems are a natural fit.Expiring licenses and end of life systems provide another excellent opportunity to integrate Linux systems. Shifting requirements often mean a Windows application no longer pays for itself after consolidation or a change of application location. Sliding in a Linux system to handle left over file and print duties saves money and frees an expensive Microsoft server license for other areas. Many products leverage embedded Linux. Such products arrive at large companies every day in the form of security appliances, firewalls, storage servers, and backup controllers. As Linux appliances prove their worth, Linux servers receive the spill over goodwill. The heart of many enterprise networks remains the mainframe. IBM sells multiple Linux distributions for each of their mainframe systems today. When a company looks for high performance or high availability computing options, Linux vendors dominate the option list. While Linux desktops will be the most visible integration project, they will also take the longest to appear in noticeable numbers. Major hardware vendors support desktop Linux but do not sell enough Linux-enabled PCs to annoy Microsoft. http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=04/07/23/2247213
|