Saugatuck Technology has published research which suggests that have the large businesses on the planet will have switched to Linux for mission-critical applications within the next 5 years. Things will, Saugatuck say, get off to a relatively slow start with just 18% of businesses making that switch by the year end, but quickly accelerate by 40% between 2007 and 2009, and 80% from 2009 to the end of 2011. Who says so? The senior IT decision makers surveyed by Saugatuck, that’s who. The people with the budgets and the savvy to decide if Linux can make the move into the business big time.
The report states that “by now it should be obvious to even the most casual industry observers that Linux operating systems – and open source-based software in general – have reached critical marketplace mass.” Indeed, this enterprise grade message is reinforced by the kind of recent announcements and deals made by the likes of both Oracle and Microsoft, joining the open source is good debate that IBM and Unisys have long since been cheerleading. This legitimization of Linux can only continue to rub off into corporate culture, and that’s the thrust of the report findings.
But do you agree, is the end of commercial, proprietary platforms within the corporate marketplace really nigh?