Gabriel Consulting Unveils Key Findings of 2010-11 Unix Server Vendor Research
Survey Respondents See Role for both Unix and Linux in the Data Center
BEAVERTON, Oregon – June 21, 2011 — Gabriel Consulting Group (GCG), an independent analyst firm, today released key findings of its fifth annual 2010-11 Unix Server Vendor Preference Survey, a report focused on vendor selection trends among 306 enterprise data center managers responsible for data centers of all sizes.
One section of the survey was directed at IT customers who use both Unix and Linux in their data centers. Respondents compared the platforms on technology and support issues. Key results from this section include:
- Almost 60% of customers who use both commercial Unix and Linux said that commercial Unix is a better choice for some workloads. About the same number said that Linux is not at the same technical level as Unix.
- Just over half said that Unix operating systems are more available and reliable than Linux.
- About the same number agreed with the statement, “Unix offers higher performance and throughput vs. Linux.”
- Just under one-fourth of respondents said that Linux support is as good as that offered by Unix vendors. Another one-fourth were not sure.
“Enterprise customers who have both commercial Unix and Linux see value in both systems. While they’re increasingly relying on Linux, they don’t see it as a complete substitute for commercial Unix systems at this point,” said Dan Olds, Principal Analyst at GCG. “They see commercial Unix platforms as a bit better choice for mission critical workloads, particularly those that require vertical scalability combined with high availability. These are also customers who see a lot of value in vendor support, and on this score they believe that the commercial Unix vendors have more to offer than what they can get with Linux.”
The survey also asked customers about their future Unix and Linux usage plans. On these questions, the survey found that:
- A large majority (76%) of customers said they will be using commercial Unix systems 5+ years from now. Only 5% ‘strongly disagreed’ with that statement.
- Almost as many commercial Unix customers (65%) said they have no plans to migrate away from the platform. 17% said they weren’t sure, and an additional 17% said they probably would be leaving the platform.
“We don’t see any wholesale move away from the commercial Unix platform in the near future,” said Olds. “Just as the rise of Unix didn’t eliminate mainframes, the rise of Linux isn’t eliminating commercial Unix. There are reasons why customers use these systems and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”
GCG is also releasing findings from other sections of the 2010-11 Unix Server Vendor Preference Survey. More information and detailed results are available here. Connect with Dan Olds and GCG on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
About Gabriel Consulting Group
Gabriel Consulting Group is a research, analysis, and consulting firm dedicated to helping clients achieve maximum return on their Information Technology investment.
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Contact: Dan Olds
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