Open Source Servers is a Dumb Idea

Timothy Prickett Morgan is a writer and analyst whom I usually respect. He is off base with a proposal to rid the world of proprietary servers and replace them with Open Source Servers.

Morgan writes, "IT vendors are in the business of selling what are still largely point solutions to customers who have holistic problems that include myriad legacy systems. The vendors and the consumers of servers, in particular, have been at odds with each other from the beginning. The vendors control the introduction, maturation, and death of any technology in the servers they control, often to the chagrin of their customers.

There is another way to make and support servers, one that is more flexible, yet allows companies to absorb change in the way they want to, not the way that vendors want them to."

What Morgan wants is a myriad of interchangeability standards that would allow enterprises to allow -- well, there is no other way to put it -- do-it-yourself (DIY) servers. I agree it is sometimes frustrating to be unable to plug an IBM Power server into an HP rack, or have to pay a big price for the sheet metal and screws on hot-plug disk drives. But that's the way the industry works -- and has always worked.

No New News
First, Morgan is wrong. Open Source hardware has been around in many variations for years. You can go to Tyan or any number of Taiwan server-motherboard makers and buy the features you want. Exactly like a DIY desktop PC. Enterprises can easily negotiate with the Taiwanese or Chinese to procure disk drive enclosures, racks, and all the things Morgan rants about. But, gee, that would mean having F1000 enterprises designing their own variation on Open Source computers. I trust at least a few CEOs will decide that computer design and on-site assembly is not the core competency of most enterprises (and certainly not the government). On the other hand, resellers have supported the small- medium-business market this way for years with OEM parts they assemble.

Peter's "Make a Buck" Argument
CIOs for years have had the delusion they should receive the low -- as in free -- price of open source software. They just expect the free software to come with enterprise-class support on a 24x7 basis. What is wrong with this thinking? Software and Morgan's target hardware companies have to mark up the products they sell to cover the support and warranty they provide. They also are expected by shareholders to make a profit. All those on-site vendor pre-sales calls to help scope the project requirements get added into the gross margin needed on disk drives enclosures. And almost all enterprises need that support and help, whether it is a paid service or built into the price of the server rack.

Open source Enterprise Won't Fly
Sorry, Timothy Prickett Morgan, your idea won't fly in the real world of enterprise computing. The choice to do open source has been there for a decade in many ways and the market has spoken with a resounding "no thanks". Enterprises may grumble and groan about prices, but they keep paying and paying. In fact, when faced with the end of a hardware platform (think HP 3000), they roar with displeasure.

Peter S. Kastner