Linux is rapidly shedding its "techies only" image to emerge as the
OS increasingly being used across industries. Yet, niggling issues with Linux
have made sure that the unsettling of proprietary systems, if ever, is a distant
possibility. A Dataquest-MAIT Report on Linux use in organizations, shows who is
using the OS, and why…
It used to be something only techies did–those geeks in cubicles who
derived immense pleasure from tinkering with the innards of a white box while
ordinary mortals in the organization earnestly grappled with completing the task
at hand using the computer. Today, even as Linux has graduated from being a
hobby for programmers to a tool company’s use to advance their products, user
mindsets remain much the same.
Ask
users to work on a system that works much the same but looks different or use a
few more steps to share a file on the network… The office will soon resound
with complaints about "how technology only makes life more complex, how
busy people need not waste time relearning the use of basic software
applications and so on..."
And in most cases, these complaints are justified. Organizations implementing
Linux have to grapple with critical issues like support, ultimate
accountability, and administration of the system, which is more complex.
Despite the hurdles and the hiccoughs, Linux is actually making inroads into
the enterprise space. User companies approached by Dataquest-MAIT (Manufacturers’
Association for Information Technology) have stated cost savings ranging from
40% to as high as 70% as a result of using Linux.
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While the lower cost of the OS remains the advantage, companies have found a
lot of other interesting reasons to usher in Linux. As for that niggling issue
of a familiar user interface, there is a ‘workaround’ to that.
Eicher Goodearth, for instance, has its backend on Linux while users continue
with the familiar proprietary software apps.
As Linux on desktops is not yet popular, currently almost all applications
are server oriented. Hence the cost reduction generally depends on the number of
client server applications used in the organization. Organizations thus save on
both operating system (OS) licenses and client licenses.
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Shekhar Dasgupta, managing director, Oracle India pegs at saving between 35%
to 50% costs for users running software on Linux, adding that all Oracle
applications are now available on Linux.
Apart from Oracle, virtually all leading IT vendors in India including
Oracle, HP, IBM, Sun, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro have developed
products for the Linux platform. It is this support from large corporations as
well as the development of a growing number of applications that run on Linux
that have triggered off the proliferation of Linux among enterprises. Another
significant reason is the arrival of Red Hat (distributor of the most popular
variant of Linux) in the country.
Despite the efforts at promoting Linux, it is still largely found at the
printer-server stage rather than at the mission-critical database server level.
So, who’s using Linux?
IT companies for one, have had good reason to leverage on the cost benefits
of deploying Linux in their own organizations, given the financial squeeze that
the slowdown brought in. Also, IT companies naturally find it far easier to
tackle niggling Linux usage deterrents like the need for good technical support
given the technical expertise available in-house. Once out of the technology
expert’s closet, Linux is raising its head in enterprises across verticals,
from education, manufacturing, banking and finance to defense engineering, life
science and the one with the largest potential–government.
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"Linux has evoked particularly strong interest in certain solution
segments such as the Internet and networking related services, high performance
computing in petroleum, research, bioinformatics etc, Carrier Grade Linux in
telecom, workload consolidation in the financial and manufacturing industries
and in distributed computing in retail and branch automation industries,"
points out IBM India MD Abraham Thomas.
Rolta India is a good example of how a software company that started using
Linux in-house and the success of the experiment prompted it to develop software
applications that run on Linux for its customers. With a calendar year 2001
turnover of Rs 304 crore, Rolta has over 2,500 desktops, servers and systems
running on Windows, Linux, and some flavors of Unix over LAN/WAN. RoltaNet, its
ISP setup that initially started on the Microsoft platform is currently running
entirely on Linux.
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Oracle itself has quite a few Linux based pilots and operational systems in
use.
InterGlobe Technologies, a travel technology company with annual sales of
over $5 million has been using Linux. Out of the 70 PC users at Spider Systems,
a Rs 1.5 crore IT services company, 25 have been using Linux. So is Samtech
Infonet.
Mascon Global’s Life Sciences Division extensively uses Red Hat Linux 8.0
in its development activities, as it is "well suited to addressing problems
of computational biology." The Central Bank of India, Madhya Pradesh
Commercial Tax (Treasury) and IDBI bank are currently using Oracle applications
running on Linux.
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From the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) to centres of learning and
research like Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, BITS, BARC, ISRO, and C-DAC,
Linux has found several takers in the education segment. The Jiva Institute as
well as Jiva Public School has been running systems on Linux in as early as
1994.
Another interesting Linux initiative in the education segment is the Goa
Schools Computers Project (GSCP) in trying to implement GNU/Linux in schools.
With an IT investment of approximately Rs 20 crore and 250 PC users (out of
which 200 are onto the network), automobile manufacturing company Honda Siel
plans to migrate its internal network, desktops as well as other applications
from NT to Linux. The company has recently started using the LINUX as a proxy
server.
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However, Khan admits that disturbing the proven and running system to achieve
some perceived benefits is a bit difficult, and requires agreement from the
company’s management cadres too.LG Electronics (India) a company with a Rs
3,000 crore turnover (and nearly 1,000 users) also has a migration plan in
place. Small and medium sized enterprises too have been quick to realize that it
can deliver immediate, tangible benefits. In the SOHO segment, the techies are
the ones playing with Linux and very few actual users.
The ER&DCI (Electronics Research and Development Centre of India) based
in Noida has developed Linux based solutions like thin clients and a platform
independent word processor called Lekhika to offer Indian languages support.
ER&DCI is also an ISP and its setup is based on Linux.
ER&DCI, Noida, and IIT, Kanpur has developed a Linux based translation
support system for English to Hindi. IIT Chennai is working on localizing Linux
to Malayalam and Tamil, while IIT-Bangalore has committed resources to the
IndLinux project. Mithi Software too is adopting Linux and other open source
platforms for its local language software.
It’s more than the Money
LGEIL deputy general manager (IT) Arindam Bose estimates that the use of
Linux can save up to Rs 20,000 per user. Besides, it is legal, with the same
deliverables as proprietary software and is more secure and stable" says
Bose.
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"One finds that the cost of licensing itself makes up for about 20% of
the overall cost of a medium level application software development project.
Using Linux curtails this cost significantly," points out Honda Siel’s
Khan. Not only are licensing costs taken care of, but using opensource systems
immediately puts enterprises using pirated software (especially in the SME
space) and thus vulnerable to reprimand from anti-piracy agencies, on legal
ground.
Spider Systems CEO Rajan Bhatnagar adds that using Linux eliminates hidden
costs like setup, migration time, downtime, additional hardware costs etc.
"With Linux the setup is quicker, downtime is almost non-existent and
hardware requirements very lean," he says. Then there is stability. Users
say Linux almost never freezes under normal use.
"The provision to play with the source gives one an ability to customize
the OS suiting specific needs," adds Alok Gupta, of Samtech. Businesses
also value open source software because it allows groups of companies to
collaborate on software problems. Linux programs can be installed on practically
any machine including older, outdated computers and offer business owners a
degree of flexibility they wouldn’t find with other operating systems. Since
the source code is available to all, modifications and enhancements are easy to
do. And while critics of Linux accuse the system of being "too open to be
secure", its supporters say that as the internals have been scrutinized by
thousands of technical specialists, and most security holes have been plugged.
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"Linux can be tailored to the specific hardware and software needs and
has the ability to connect with several different types of machines into a
coherent whole. For example, Linux can run both SMB protocol (which Windows
understands), and Apple Talk (for Mac users), so it can act as a Windows/ Mac
go-between" says Vipul Doshi, COO, InterGlobe Technologies.
Linux is also known to be easier to manage either centrally and remotely.
These better known advantages of Linux apart, Mascon Global attributes its use
of Linux to the fact that most of the bioinformatics tools developed in various
universities across the world are developed on this platform and that it is best
to avoid "reinventing the wheel." Using the same platform helps in
smooth integration with the work done by academic and research organizations
worldwide.
"We are basically tackling problems which involve huge data generated in
life sciences experiments and needs supercomputing powers. Additionally, large
computing power would be cost effectively available through massively parallel
Linux cluster of existing desktops. Hence we have decided to adopt this
approach, " explains Mascon Global’s Dr A P Agnihotry.
Downside Linux
But being in the highly specialized field of bioinformatics, Dr Agnihotry
says that there are times when the open source community is not be able to
understand your problem. "Then you have to solve it yourself which takes
some time and a lot of understanding of internal architecture. Besides, there
might be bugs, which a developer has not noticed or you may face limits imposed
by the kernel itself in manipulating huge data. But since the source code is
also available, you are always at the advantage of solving it yourself, though
it needs understanding, "says Dr Agnihotry.
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But then, does this mean that Linux is the prerogative of those with a
high degree of technical knowledge?
LGEIL’s Arindam Bose cites technical support as one of the main deterrents
in the bubbling over of the Linux revolution. The problem of technical support
has reduced to a great extent, as large software vendors are willing to offer
support for their own software applications running on Linux.
The OS also lacks a strong, robust journal file system, supports a limited
number of processors, and has relatively few administration tools and little
backup support compared to products from UNIX vendors and Microsoft.
Commodore Navin Chandra, CEO (India Operations) of Infinite Computer
Solutions says that acquiring Linux compatible modems systems and good training
material on Linux is a problem as is identifying ways to speed up the software
installation process.
Samtech MD Alok Gupta points out that Linux is not very well documented and
that there are far too many variants to choose from.
While Onward Novell does not use Linux across the organization, it is used on
the network front. "It is cheap and robust due to its Unix flavor. But
being open source, it is prone to hacking and viruses and not many applications
work on it," says Sandeep Sehgal, regional manager (North), Onward Novell.
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Zensar MD and global CEO Ganesh Natarajan believes that Linux use among
enterprises is still in the experimental stage. "It is really the small and
medium software firms and some segments of government that seem to be embracing
Linux, while large enterprises including firms like ours are still enterprise
users of Microsoft," he says. Natarajan admits that using Linux in a
company the size of Zensar (with revenues worth Rs 225 crore and over 1,200 PC
users) could result in savings worth a few crore. "However, for companies
focused on their own business, integrating multiple third party software becomes
an irritant," he says.
Even today, the likes of Zensar, who prefer not to rock the boat sailing on
proprietary systems, far exceed the number of companies that have embarked on
the Linux journey. Obviously, the list of ‘Why nots’ for Linux still runs
longer than the list of ‘Whys’.
MAIT executive director Vinnie Mehta emphasizes that eventually, it is the
relevance of the applications to the local market and apt support that will
determine if Linux is here to stay.
Software that runs on Linux is hitting the market. Software vendors too are
supporting Linux as it brings down the cost of running their own software
applications. As for the enterprise space, paradigms have begun to be redefined.
It’s like the benefits of exercise. Most people agree it is good for you,
but few actually end up doing it! For years, people in the IT industry have
spoken about the benefits of opensource systems. Enterprises have listened and
agreed, but very few actually ended up using opensource.
And that is finally changing now.
Enterprises approached by Dataquest-MAIT have cited a variety of reasons for
implementing Linux, but the biggest draw to using this system, remains the cost.
Several innovators in the country are combining Linux with various low cost
hardware options that are far more affordable.
The best known among these is the Linux based Simputer set to make waves with
its Rs 10,000 price-point.
Another
innovation is the use of a ‘thin client-thick server architecture’ running
on Linux systems combined with the software called ‘Emergic Freedom’
developed by Netcore Solutions.
This software is being used by Jiva Institute in New Delhi in its ‘Digital
Bridges’ initiative aimed at developing low-cost computing solutions for
underserved communities. The cost of buying standard desktop machines for a
class of 40 or more students is extremely high. However, a computer can be used
extremely effectively with a far lower configuration.
Instead of a "thick client" (a robust desktop computer), the
solution uses a number of "thin clients". These are individual
computers that have very minimal configurations–just a keyboard, mouse,
monitor, and a CPU (central processing unit) with no hard drive. These thin
clients connect to a powerful server "thick server", which takes care
of all of the computing processes for each computer.
Coupled with X Window system and a good desktop environment such as KDE,
Linux provides a very good and-cost effective thin client platform. KDE (K
Desktop Environment is an open source graphical desktop environment for Unix
workstations. Initially called the Kool Desktop Environment, KDE is an ongoing
project with development taking place on the Internet and discussions held
through the official KDE mailing list and numerous newsgroups). Since Linux is
free and so are a lot of the applications, not only cost of the hardware is
reduced but also the cost of the software. The applications use up the resources
of the server and hence the capability to run the latest applications depend on
the server and not on the client. You don’t need the latest hardware for each
and every user, only need a reasonably fast server.