Posted on 24-7-2002
How
to Run a Microsoft-Free Shop
By Scott Berinato*
DO YOU FIND that you're incapable of stopping upgrades? Do you
spend much
of your day patching security holes? Do you have a vague sense
that you're
spending too much money on software? If you answered yes to
any of those
questions, you may have become overly dependent on Microsoft.
Here's a
handy 12-step program to cure your condition.
STEP 1 WE ADMITTED WE WERE POWERLESS TO MANAGE OUR MICROSOFT
SOFTWARE.
Many CIOs feel they are in a double bind with Microsoft products.
The
software itself seems always in need of security patches. The
Windows 2000
server, for example, currently has 154 files available for download
at
Microsoft.com, nearly half of which are security updates. Windows
XP makes
things worse. The product's new subscription licensing model
has raised the
ire of many executives because they feel it forces them into
frequent
upgrades in order to get their money's worth. But in a recent
CIO survey, a
majority (65 percent) admitted they weren't considering any
alternatives.
"A lot of us will just cry foul but then pony up," says one
CIO.
STEP 2 WE CAME TO BELIEVE THAT A POWER GREATER THAN OURSELVES
COULD RESTORE
OUR IT DEPARTMENT TO SANITY.
Linux is that power. It is less expensive to acquire. It takes
up less hard
disk space and requires less memory to run. There is elegance
in the
open-source code license: You can have the source code for free,
allowing
you to upgrade or patch systems as you like. The only rule is
that when you
develop something new out of the source code, you must share
that code with
everyone else. Many developers believe this open-source model
makes Linux
inherently more secure than a proprietary operating system.
"We think we'll
get blazing performance," says David Larsen, director of IS
in Murray City,
Utah, who's starting a migration to Linux desktops. "The other
thing is,
Linux is being taught in schools. It's getting easier to find
skills. It's
something whose time is coming."
STEP 3 WE MADE A DECISION TO TURN OUR LIVES OVER TO LINUX AS
WE UNDERSTOOD
LINUX.
This is the hardest part of running a Microsoft-free shop: deciding
to do
it. Linux has a geek's reputation. At the same time, many executives
have a
crude interpretation of its value to corporations—"It's free,
and therefore
it's cheap." Slowly, that mentality is changing, but it's still
true that
there first must be a wholehearted and willing embrace of Linux
as a
legitimate enterprise replacement for Microsoft. This journey
usually
starts with a tech executive playing around. Maybe it's a Linux
firewall on
a home machine. Maybe it's a Linux desktop on an old Pentium
that was
collecting dust. But it starts at the top. A Microsoft-free
IT shop cannot
exist without the CIO reading up on and understanding the power
of the
alternatives.
STEP 4 WE MADE A SEARCHING AND FEARLESS INVENTORY OF OUR NETWORK,
APPLICATIONS, PROCESSES AND BUSINESS RULES.
Do this, literally. Write down everything. A migration away
from Microsoft
requires very real proof that the move will make your business
better. But
you can't prove your case without a list of what's being replaced
and why.
STEP 5 WE ADMITTED TO OURSELVES—AND TO OUR CEO—THE EXACT NATURE
OF OUR
INFORMATION SYSTEMS' FAILINGS.
Victims of a hack or virus have likely already done this as
a necessary
step in the recovery process. To others, the major failing is
this: They
are locked into a Microsoft-dominated architecture that feeds
them
insecure, bloated code. Another failing is the needless codependencies
of
Microsoft products. Perhaps the most expensive failing of CIOs'
Microsoft-dominated IT shops is the upgrade cycle. "There's
no other
compelling reason to upgrade Office except to maintain compatibility
with
everyone else," says Larry Shutzberg, CIO of packaging maker
Rock-Tenn in
Atlanta.
STEP 6 WE WERE ENTIRELY READY TO HAVE LINUX REMOVE ALL THESE
DEFECTS.
If step 3 was "Decide to do it," then Step 6 is "No, really
decide to do
it." Psychologically preparing your company to create a Microsoft-free
shop
will require a complete rethinking of entrenched technology
and business
biases. First, you have to plan a phased approach to taking
Microsoft
products offline. This occurs application-by-application. Firewalls
first.
Then mail servers. Then Web servers. Generally, the desktop
OS—Microsoft's
monopoly—is hardest to eschew, and so it comes last.
STEP 7 WE HUMBLY ASKED LINUX TO REMOVE WINDOWS, APACHE TO REMOVE
IIS,
EVOLUTION TO REMOVE OUTLOOK, NETSCAPE 6.1 TO REMOVE INTERNET
EXPLORER AND
STAROFFICE TO REMOVE OFFICE.
With the game plan in place, set up a "sandbox" in one corner
of the
enterprise—a couple of servers and desktops, and some other
hardware for
networking and firewalls. Here, the various Linux applications
will be
brought online, tested, tweaked and prepared for deployment
throughout the
network.
STEP 8 WE MADE A LIST OF ALL BUSINESS UNITS WE HARMED AND BECAME
WILLING TO
MAKE AMENDS TO ALL.
Prepare memos that list ways a particular application improves
operations—whether it's saving disk space (Red Hat Linux distribution
is
about 25MB; Windows XP requires 2GB), memory, acquisition costs,
or upgrade
and maintenance costs. One CIO, though he thinks it's doubtful.
He could
migrate away from Microsoft, says a major benefit would be the
time he'd
take back for strategic planning. Right now, he wastes time
figuring out
how to proceed with nonstrategic products like Office.
STEP 9 WE MADE DIRECT AMENDS TO THOSE BUSINESS UNITS (EXCEPT
WHEN TO DO SO
WOULD HAVE GOTTEN US FIRED).
Give them all of that freed-up disk space back. Return money
saved on
licensing (most Linux applications require a capital purchase
and support,
but little in the way of ongoing fees). At the film company
DreamWorks, Ed
Leonard has ported the entire graphics animation department
to Linux; Shrek
was created on a "renderfarm" (a powerful, refrigerator-size
rack of
servers) that had 800 processors running Linux. Leonard took
the money he
saved by not having maintenance contracts and used it to buy
far more
inexpensive Linux PCs. He says the money he has saved will allow
DreamWorks
to replace desktops and the renderfarm every two years instead
of every five.
STEP 10 WE CONTINUED TO TAKE INVENTORY OF THE SWITCH TO LINUX,
AND WHEN WE
MUFFED IT, WE PROMPTLY ADMITTED OUR ERROR.
Now be brutally honest. If a conversion to Linux doesn't save
money or
improve the business, admit it in your analysis—and possibly
stop the
process. You're not doing this as a crusade. In many cases,
honestly
admitting it was an even swap will win more supporters than
trying to fudge
benefits that may not be there.
STEP 11 WE PRAYED FOR KNOWLEDGE OF BUSINESS GOALS AND THE POWER
TO CARRY
THEM OUT.
Now you can put the documentation to work. Show what moving
to a
Microsoft-free shop can do. Turn all that data into a slick
presentation
created on StarOffice Impress. Michael Tiemaan, CTO of Linux
vendor Red
Hat, recently did such a presentation for a customer. The customer
had done
a high-volume transaction on a $2.5 million, 32-processor server
using
Windows applications. Even then, the transaction took two weeks
to finish.
Red Hat and the customer put together an alternative: 10 two-processor
servers running Linux. All told, it cost $500,000. The transaction
now
completes in one day.
STEP 12 HAVING HAD A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING, WE VOWED TO CARRY
THIS MESSAGE TO
OTHER IT SHOPS AND PRACTICE MICROSOFT-FREE COMPUTING IN ALL
OUR AFFAIRS.
Tiemaan arguably is in a position of power on this, but when
he receives a
document in a "proprietary data format"—that is, .doc, .ppt
and so forth—he
sends a courteous reply to the person asking her to resend the
document in
a nonproprietary format. Most of the time, this is a painless
exchange, he
says. "To run a Microsoft-free shop, you simply must be disciplined
about
it," Tiemaan says. "When I came here, I ditched my Windows system,
and I
haven't looked back." [end]
* Scott Berinato, sberinato@cio.com
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