Ensuring data protection on the path to Linux

Open source technologies are gaining momentum as a viable backbone for core computing requirements, resulting in soaring popularity for Linux worldwide. In fact, 2006 was a banner year for Linux, powered by a record surge in enterprise deployments as well as broad-based validations from industry heavyweights, including Oracle and Microsoft.

As the fastest growing operating system and storage management software opportunity in the market today, Linux continues to gain substantial traction in companies of all types and sizes, from mid-range organizations to large-scale enterprises running mission-critical applications.

Perhaps the most valuable validation that Linux is ready for primetime in enterprise and data center environments is its ever-increasing application support. Beyond its distinguished trademark as a staple for use in web portals and web hosting as part of the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP), Linux is winning broader acceptance as a platform for mission-critical databases, messaging, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and payroll. In response, enterprise software vendors are increasingly porting applications to Linux, resulting in wide-scale deployments across all industries, including finance, retail, government, manufacturing and education.

The ability to install more affordable hardware and take advantage of many more software choices results in higher-performance, lower-cost technology deployments. To that end, the long-term value proposition for migrating to Linux is a compelling incentive. Reducing costs has been a dominant driver for Linux adoption, especially at the expense of UNIX, because the tab for software and porting is low to non-existent.