[wplug] Request for corporate OSS success/horror stories

[Greg Simkins]

Hi Chester,

Come visit our class on Monday evenings at Community College South Campus 
(see http://sia.ccac.edu).  (Not next week a/c memorial day - Last class on 
Monday June 27).  We have a simulated production network with a bunch of 
linux services.  It is simulated, but may give you some ideas.

Greg


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hosey, Chester" <Chester.Hosey at gianteagle.com>
To: <wplug at wplug.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 24, 2005 4:35 PM
Subject: [wplug] Request for corporate OSS success/horror stories


> I'm doing research for a project to evaluate the use of Linux in a
> corporate environment. I'm a long-term Linux user in the home and data
> center, but when it comes to migration of enterprise-level services I'm
> a bit inexperienced.
>
> I've read a good bit of documentation, and familiarized myself with some
> of the enterprise tools available through commercial vendors. I was
> surprised by the quality of RedHat's enterprise management tools -- I'd
> never used RedHat beyond the level of individually configured servers.
> Of course, there's a difference between managing systems individually
> and trying to command a clone army of boxes. For management of single
> machines on the back end, I still prefer some branch of Debian, but for
> the latter, well, for common administrative tasks having to SSH to more
> machines than I have fingers isn't something that appeals to me.
>
> Does anyone have any success stories with migrating large existing
> networks away from a Microsoft-centric setup? Due to my position, of
> course I'd love to hear about things such as return on investment, total
> cost of ownership, and all of the other fun things for which MBAs invent
> TLAs. Due to my interest in the subject and love for the occasional
> horror story, I'd be interested in hearing about any sort of anecdotes
> about the pleasures and pains of finding ways to make inroads towards
> use of Free software in a corporate environent. I'd hope that other
> members of the list would enjoy hearing about any experiences you have
> to share; if anyone prefers to share their experiences off-list I'd be
> glad to receive your emails or phone calls, or even meet sometime for
> coffee (n.b. the offer for coffee isn't corporate-sponsored, so don't
> bleed me dry).
>
> Please also note that I'm easily amused, so don't hesitate to send me
> anything remotely interesting, or pointers to anything remotely
> interesting.
>
> For those interested in learning a little themselves,
> http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg246380.pdf was a pretty
> interesting read and includes descriptions and summaries of some
> migration techniques and management tools. Also, apparently Sun offers
> support contracts for OpenOffice, even for those using it under Windows.
> Nifty stuff.
>
> -- 
> Chet Hosey
> Giant Eagle, Inc.
> Chester.Hosey at gianteagle.com
>
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