| Federal IT managers increasingly considering Linux, says panel |
Jan. 09, 2006
An increasing number of federal information technology systems are being migrated from proprietary Unix systems to open-source Linux systems and desktops in order to gain quicker upgrades, platform flexibility, increased security, and several other advantages, a trio of IT experts concluded Monday during an online panel discussion.
That was the consensus of top IT experts who recently gathered for an industry summit webcast, "The Case for Linux in the Federal IT Sector," conducted by Larstan Business Reports. Panel members were Paul Smith, Red Hat vice president of government sales operations; Mike Fitzmaurice, Linux business development manager at GTSI; and Scott Ruff, manager of Linux business development at Hewlett-Packard.
In a 2005 Larstan survey of 300 federal IT managers, 63 percent of the respondents said they either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "Open source architecture is valuable, and my organization should adopt it."
The primary reason government is attracted to Linux systems and desktops, Fitzmaurice said, is that "the government can adopt these systems faster, and can deploy in much quicker time."
"Open source in general is more reliable, offers better security, and is more compliant with service-oriented architecture," Fitzmaurice said. "Overall, the government is going to benefit in those areas. And in most cases, it's going to be more cost-effective."
In the federal sector, the list of specific computing needs for each agency or department is a long one, but all of these entities share this motivation: to modernize and upgrade, their IT systems need flexibility, adaptability, interoperability, security, transparency, the panel agreed.
The panel members also agreed that open-source architecture in general, and Linux in particular, meet these needs far better than proprietary, closed systems such as Unix and Windows.
"We are finding that many of the investment banks and other institutional users are already running 15 to 20 percent of their operations on Red Hat Linux, and that others are planning to make the switch," Smith said.
In the same survey of federal IT managers, 77 percent of the respondents said that they "strongly agreed" that if a system is not open, they ultimately will pay too much for products and services.
"Competition is the mother of invention," Ruff said. "That's a big advantage for the open source development community.
"Look at the changes Blockbuster had to make when Netflix came onto the scene with its online services. The same thing is happening in the IT world, due to open source. Cost is a big factor in this equation, too."
The panel examined a wide range of relevant issues, including:- How migrating to Linux and an open source system helps federal IT managers achieve federally mandated goals, such as collaboration
- The key attributes and benefits of open source systems, as opposed to those that are proprietary and closed
- The pressing cyber security issues that open source solutions can address
- The operational -- and ultimately strategic -- benefits that can be accrued from effective implementation of Linux open source architecture
All three panelists agreed that there's an enduring notion among end users that Linux is less safe than proprietary systems, but they dismissed this idea as a myth. They noted that open source software provides more transparency and control, allowing users to detect and fix security vulnerabilities in real time, as opposed to waiting for proprietary vendors to fix bugs.
Fitzmaurice explained that a diverse group of technologists within the developer community are continually scrutinizing open source code. This "many eyes" approach makes open source more robust, reliable and secure than proprietary, closed code, he said.
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