A Business Case for Windows And Linux
Executive Summary
To accomplish a fair economic or Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) assessment of Windows and Linux one needs to see how Windows and Linux will impact the major cost categories of an IT deployment, such as:
For this report each of these cost categories has been examined in great detail using CIOview's TCOnow! for Windows and Linux. This platform analysis software allows a consistent evaluation approach to be in place and, perhaps most importantly, ensures different model scenarios can be easily tested under a variety of "what-if" scenarios. For example, one can see rapidly how migrating existing IT functions, such as Firewalls and Print/File functions can result in the need for fewer boxes and a corresponding reduction in IT staff. Then you can proceed to drill down on the major cost categories to review and possibly change the underlying assumptions. All cost categories have at least two levels of detail that can be examined and subsequently changed. In fact, you can drill down to the level of changing the cost of power to reflect your local electricity costs as a factor in determining facilities costs.
Irrespective of whether you utilize a software product, sophisticated spreadsheets or a “stubby pencil”, to appreciate the potential economic consequences of Windows and Linux, the very same factors have to be taken into account.
Just the facts ...
Ultimately, the cost of a Windows versus Linux decision will run into the millions if not tens of millions of dollars for many companies. Unless you can take all of the issues discussed here and many more and model them appropriately, there is simply no way to know whether Linux or Windows is a better fit for your company.
TCOnow! for Windows and Linux is designed to help you carry out just this type of analysis. For example, you can specify a variety of consolidation and migration strategies, such as:
CIOview’s TCOnow! software also allows you to run all of these different scenarios and include all of your IT shop’s particular nuances. You can then balance the costs and risks of each strategy and determine whether Linux or Windows Server 2003 is right for you.
Workloads
The type or make-up of the workload being migrated to Windows and Linux not only will have a large impact on the hardware resources needed, it also will impact the possible economics of reduced personnel resources. Therefore it is key to identify workloads accurately as early on in the process as possible. The classic environments typically slated for migration to Windows and Linux are:
Financial Results
Given the information input into TCOnow! your financial costs of deploying Windows and Linux would be as follows:
Chart 1: Total Cost of Ownership over Time
Chart 1 above shows the TCO of Windows compared to that of Linux over the investment time horizon selected within TCOnow! Your TCO is based upon the following assumptions as detailed in Table 1.
Table 1: Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Assumptions
TCO Assumptions | ||
Primary application | ||
Level of RAID desired |
| |
Hours of Operations |
| |
Size for current or future needs |
| |
Consolidation Strategy |
| |
The assumptions in Table 1 are the key in refining the server configuration, helping to generate the costs associated with downtime and accounting for anticipated growth, or not, as the case may be.
The cost categories selected for this analysis are detailed in Table 2:
Table 2: Cost Categories Selected for Inclusion
Cost Category | Included? |
Servers | |
Software | |
Storage | |
Network | |
Services | |
Training | |
Facilities | |
Personnel | |
Downtime | |
Support and Maintenance |
The comparative costs of deploying your workload using the