[linux-government] Re: The Manx turn from Unix to Windows
- From: Nathan Olberding <nathan.olberding@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: linux-government@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 18:37:33 +0000
This does point out a weak point in Linux's offer, though it's not as
weak as this article might point out. It's also one of the few *big*
plusses of Windows (but then we can get in to a discussion over a
homogenous environment and how it reflects the issue with the potato
famine).
On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 09:04:56 +0100, Joachim Bauernberger
<joachim.bauernberger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/windows/0,39020396,39175662,00.htm
>
> Matt Loney
> ZDNet UK
> December 01, 2004, 18:10 GMT
>
> The Isle of Man is ditching Unix and shunning Linux as it moves its
> infrastructure from a heterogenous enviornment to Windows
>
> The Isle of Man Government is to standardise on Microsoft's Windows platform,
> ditching its existing Unix operating systems and choosing to not go down the
> Linux path that has attracted some high-profile public sector wins lately.
>
> Allan Paterson, director of the information systems division in the Manx
> government, said the move was a "strategic position" with no overarching
> contract, but just an intention to standardise on the Windows platform over
> the next five years.
>
> "We could change that tomorrow, we're not locked down. This is a relationship
> rather than a hard contract."
>
> When Paterson came to the job, he said, he was struck by "the number of
> products we had in the same space, each requiring different support skill
> sets. We had the kind of scenario where a department would phone up a third
> party supplier for a quote on application outsourcing one week, and another
> department phoning up a week later for the same thing would be offered a
> different platform."
>
> Now, the Sun, Novell and SCO UnixWare servers spread across 140 locations will
> make way for windows Windows Server 2003 running on Unisys ES7000 and
> Clearpath servers in two data centres. There were many reasons for the move,
> said Paterson. In the case of SCO, it was that different suppliers would
> provide different versions of the software, making management a huge
> headache.
>
> On the desktop, said Paterson, the government had only just finished upgrading
> to Windows 95 in 2003, but had "all sorts of compatibility problems." Now he
> is upgrading to Windows XP, with Active Directory.
>
> Asked why other desktop solutions were not considered - such as Star Office -
> Paterson said he was looking for more than just an office suite. "We wanted a
> complete management solution around the desktop. This is about service
> delivery, availability, reliability of desktop services."
>
> "I am a technical person," continued Paterson, "but this is not a tech
> decision. It is a business decision. Too often it is presented as a technical
> decision, but really it is about the wow you give to the end user at the end
> of the day."
>
> Because the Isle of Man is not part of the UK -- it is a self-governing crown
> dependency that is able to make its own laws -- purchasing decisions can be
> made independently of the UK's Office of Government Commerce, which recently
> issued report promoting the consideration of open-source software in the
> public sector. "We're not covered by the Office of Government Commerce
> guidelines on procurement. I don't have to look at open-source software every
> time. I can say, "Guys. we have all these Windows skills, let's go this way.
> We don't have to comply with UK targets, but we can learn from the UK."
>
> --
> ICQ: 214527045
> URL: http://www.bauernberger.de/
>
>
--
-NKO-
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