Add another one to the list. The never-ending battle of free open source software versus propriety solutions continues, this time with a brand new victory for Microsoft.
An Australian banking organization by the name of Members Equity Bank is the latest in the list of companies that have decided to pick Windows over Linux — and the reason cited, once again, is that the final costs of going the open source route would have been a lot higher.
You can read the full story over at ZDNet, but the Australian bank made the decision to deploy Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 over Linux alternatives that could have cost AU$100,000.
Jem Richards, the IT expert of ME Bank was noted as saying:
“Although the alternative Linux-based platform is essentially free to deploy, based on our past experience, we knew that it would cost more to support than Windows. This made the overall costs of the two operating systems approximately the same.”
This, as you may well be aware, is the not the first time something like this has happened.
Several institutions and enterprises have decided to stick with the Windows platform after taking into account the total costs involved of migrating to an open source solution.
Technical support and staff training are two important considerations — and both are currently dubbed as prohibitively expensive for Linux-based workstations. In this particular case, Jem estimated, Microsoft licenses would have required no additional investments for at least five years.
A reason enough for sticking with the Windows platform, at least for this Australian entity.
All Comments
I have studied cost management, and I can say this mentality is quite screwed up. First of all, It doesnt say windows is cheaper, it says teaching everyone Linux costs more because employers already can talk windows. This effect is only short term, as they will constantly pay for windows releases but teaching Linux is one time investment. This is a tactic i respect but I cant respect how it is represented in t his article.
How often are they really going to be getting new Windows releases though ? Most of them are probably going to go quite some time before purchasing more Windows licenses.
It’s important to note that the bank was only considering a change at the back office level, affecting its servers and IT staff. There was no mention of putting end users on Linux.
The Temenos T24 CRM is cross platform, so it would have worked in either OS environment. The real cost issue was training/upgrading the IT staff. Many Microsoft IT pros, in my experience, lack the knowledge required to run Unix-based systems. And, at least in the US, IT pros with Unix/Linux skills command significantly higher salaries than those with Microsoft certifications alone.
It’s important to note that the bank was only considering a change at the back office level, affecting its servers and IT staff. There was no mention of putting end users on Linux.
The Temenos T24 CRM is cross platform, so it would have worked in either OS environment. The real cost issue was training/upgrading the IT staff. Many Microsoft IT pros, in my experience, lack the knowledge required to run Unix-based systems. And, at least in the US, IT pros with Unix/Linux skills command significantly higher salaries than those with Microsoft certifications alone.