Assessment of Three Large Vendor’s Linux Strategies

By Bill Claybrook
http://aberdeen.com/ab_company/bios/claybrook.htm

July 18, 2003

In December 2002, I published a 35-page report entitled An Assessment of IBM’s Enterprise Linux Strategy [ http://aberdeen.com/ab_company/hottopics/ibmlinux/default.htm ]. In the next few weeks I will be publishing similar reports for Sun and HP. These reports are not sponsored by any of the vendors. The audiences are end-users, ISVs, suppliers, and systems integrators.

The table of contents common to each individual report includes: an executive summary, a detailed description of the vendor’s Linux strategy, what the vendor’s Linux strategy means to IT executives, key vendor middleware for Linux, ISV applications for Linux on the vendor’s platform(s), the vendor’s efforts to move Linux into the enterprise, and Aberdeen conclusions.

IT managers and ISVs should take particular interest in the reports. The Linux strategies of HP, IBM, and Sun are wildly different. We have IBM on the one end supporting Linux on all of its eServer platforms, HP enthusiastically supporting Linux on 32-bit and Itanium 2 platforms with the largest Linux server business in the industry, and Sun supporting Linux only on x86 compatible platforms with no announced plans for hardware support for Linux beyond 2-way machines.

4:06 ET

Copyright 2003