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Copyright Canonical 2011 www.canonical.com

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Open source without business risTop tips for a seamless Linuxestop eploymentApril 2011


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Executie summary

Its well nown that open-source software eliers some great business

benets, from reuce licensing costs an improe harware performance,

to streamline systems management an highly-secure, irus-free computing.

In spite of all this, howeer, most IT managers still choose to stic with their

existing, proprietary systems on the estop.

This reluctance to mae the moe to Linux is natural; especially gien the

pressure IT managers are uner to eep critical serices up an running

24 hours a ay. Often, its just too icult to contemplate large-scale

technology change een if its change for the better.

The purpose of this paper is to show how you can achiee the cost an

performance benets of open-source software, without any ris of owntime

or isruption for en users. It might seem lie a aunting tas, but there

are actually a number of simple tips that can help you ensure a seamless,

successful, Linux eployment an maximise your returns on inestment.

As with most things, the eil is in the etail, an eectie preparation

can help you mae the moe to Linux estops quicly an easily. Youll also

want to choose your Linux ariant carefully, opting for something that is

fully supporte, future-proof an, critically, easy to manage an maintain.

Finally, partnership is often the ey to success for Linux eployments.

The software is reay an waiting, but youre boun to nee some

professional help to elier the best possible experience for your employees.

Rea on for our top tips for ensuring a seamless Linux estop eployment,

with no business ris.


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Contents

Open source without business ris

Top tips for a seamless Linux estop

eployment

Set realistic targets 5

Minimise eployment ris 6

Minimise impact for en users 7

Streamline systems

management 7

Get enterprise-class support 8

Future-proof your estops 8

CONCLUSION 9

THE CANONICAL AdvANTAGE 10


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04 05

SET REALISTIC TARGETS

In the past, IT managers hae trie to replace proprietary estops with Linux

loc, stoc an barrel. Howeer, this rip-an-replace approach often meantaministrators an en users experience massie, isruptie changes across

the IT enironment.

By setting realistic targets for your Linux eployment, you can minimise the

challenges typically associate with technology change. To o this, youll nee to

unerstan the applications use by ierent teams an epartments toay an

ientify which employees can transition most easily to Linux estops.

Its liely that a small number of users in your organisation will rely on legacy line-

of-business applications or other specialist software. Its often best to leae this

type of user on their existing estop systems to ensure continuity an minimise

isruption. Howeer, the ast majority of information worers will be able toaopt Linux software quicly an with minimal training.

By migrating users who can moe easily to Linux rst, you can minimise

frustration an resistance to change. Critically, youll also be able to ensure users

hae open-source equialents for all the tools they currently use, helping them

wor prouctiely from ay one of the eployment.

An experience commercial partner can help you set realistic targets for phase

one of your Linux estop project, helping you mae quic wins with little or no

impact on prouctiity. You can then turn your attention to aitional target user

groups oer time.


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MINIMISE dEPLOYMENT RISk

With 24x7 epenence on IT, your critical systems an ata must be

constantly aailable for en users. An eectie eployment strategyis essential for implementing Linux estops with no ris of isruption

or owntime.

To ensure your employees continue to wor prouctiely, Linux estops

shoul be rolle out accoring to establishe, ITIL-base principles.

To start with, this means eeloping an testing Linux software to ensure

it proies a lie-for-lie alternatie to existing proprietary systems.

As a secon step, youll nee to conuct a comprehensie proof of concept

with a small group of en users before eploying the solution seamlessly

in your prouction enironment.

depening on your nees an the size of your infrastructure, you shoul alsoeelop a realistic eployment timeline. By choosing a Linux enironment

that supports remote, centralise software eployment an management,

youll be able to roll out open-source estops far more quicly an eciently.

Woring this way, some organisations hae successfully eploye hunres of

Linux estops a wee.

If you alreay hae seeral Linux estop eployments uner your belt,

you may feel comfortable going it alone. Howeer, many rst-timers choose

to wor with commercial partners to get eployment right rst time an

minimise the ris of owntime an isruption.


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MINIMISE IMPACT FOR ENd USERS

If you suenly replace employees systems an prouctiity applications

with new technology tools, there may be signicant isruption an reuceprouctiity. To mae sure en users can continue to wor prouctiely on

Linux estops, its a goo iea to choose software that is familiar an highly

intuitie with many of the same controls that employees are alreay use to.

Another way to minimise impact is to eploy open-source applications on

your existing estop operating system, helping employees get use to

them graually. Once they are accustome to Firefox as their browser an

LibreOce for their estop prouctiity tools, for example, they will be able

to mae the change to an unerlying Linux system with no fuss.

Finally, youll nee to elier some targete training to ensure your systems

amins are reay for the change. If youre worrie about oing this yourself,you coul always engage a commercial partner with the right sills an

experience to bring your internal resources up to spee.

STREAMLINE SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

Systems management is a challenge, whateer the unerlying technology.

Centralisation an automation are the name of the game, an you can greatly

reuce worloas by minimising manual interentions. Proprietary software

enors will tell you their technology is simpler to manage, but that isnt

necessarily so.

Loo for worl-class Linux management tools that can help you eploy,

upate an upgrae multiple estops from a centralise, intuitie,

GUI-base console. Also ensure that you can access this serice online,

or eploy it in-house if you hae specic security nees, or to manage

a large enterprise infrastructure.


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GET ENTERPRISE-CLASS SUPPORT

To ensure employees can wor prouctiely at all times, an to reuce

the friction of technology change, your Linux estops must be properlysupporte on an ongoing basis. Proprietary software giants say their support

is the best, an its true that their partner networ an community resources

are impressie. Howeer, the Linux worl is eoling rapily, an commercial

partners can now proie the enterprise-class support you nee.

Loo for a commercial partner that can gie you access to qualie Linux

support analysts who are traine to resole serice issues quicly an

eectiely. There shoul be ierent support options aailable, so you

can meet your nees at the lowest possible cost, an you shoul be free to

choose how many machines, an which machines, are coere.

Also, if you manage a large enterprise infrastructure, mae sure your partneris up to the job of supporting it. If there are eicate support options

aailable, with on-site engineers, then so much the better. Its extremely

aluable to hae someone who can help you continually improe your Linux

enironment an represent your interests to the eeloper community.

Finally, choose a partner that can gie you access to a wealth of community

support resources, incluing forums, FAQs an knowlege Bases that can

help you resole issues quicly yourself, without so much as maing a call.

FUTURE-PROOF YOUR dESkTOPS

Proprietary software enors hae a technology roamap thats set in stone.

As software becomes unsupporte, you hae to upgrae which is often

expensie an unnecessary.

Linux systems will neer force an upgrae, but you hae to be able to eep

them current an properly patche. To mae sure you can, you shoul choose

software that oers scheule releases for upates an patches, as well as

long-term support.

This in of system will enable you to maximise returns from your Linux

inestments. Youll be able to guarantee a useful lifespan of seeral years for

a long-term-release operating system, an youll be able to ensure all serersan estops are upate regularly.

To minimise patching worloas, you might consier getting help from a

commercial partner. Theres a lot that can be one to pre-screen upates,

ensuring that you ont waste time on anything you ont strictly nee.


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Conclusion

Linux estops oer compelling benets compare to proprietary alterna-

ties. deploye in the right way, they can help you achiee massie licensing

saings, streamline systems management an enhance the performance of

oler harware.

In spite of these clear aantages, howeer, IT managers cant ris maing

signicant changes to their estop enironments - unless constant uptime

for ey serices can be guarantee.

In a recent surey from Freeform dynamics Lt, 1,275 responents share

their experiences of eploying Linux in their organisations. When ase spe-

cically how they minimise eployment ris, they put most importance on

unerstaning an meeting en-user nees, closely followe by application

compatibility, realistic eployment targets, eectie en-user training an

meeting ongoing requirements for Winows apps (see gure below).

In this paper, wee taen a loo at how you can minimise the ris of Linux

eployments an maximise returns on inestment from setting realistic

targets for your eployment, to choosing the best support options aailable.

To a large extent, the success of your eployment will epen on your choice

of Linux software an the capabilities of your commercial partner.

Freeform dynamics surey to enterprise Linux users

Do you have any general advice on how to minimise the risks associated with a desktop Linux deployment?

Consider end userthoughts and needs

0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Thoroughly assessapp compatibility

Take things slowly,pilot and test

Pay attention totraining and support

Determine Windowsapps requirements


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The Canonical aantage

Canonical, the company behin the Ubuntu project, has helpe a large

number of customers roll out open-source estops to achiee signicant

cost saings an performance benets. By partnering with us from the

earliest planning stage of your open-source project, you can minimise

isruption uring eployment, ensure a seamless transition for en users

an maximise aailability for your critical IT serices.

Specically, Canonical can help you:

Set realistic targets for your open-source estop project...

The Canonical professional serices team helps you ientify users who

can migrate seamlessly to Ubuntu.

Minimise eployment risCanonical consultants ensure a smooth transition to Ubuntu base on

trie-an-teste, IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)-base processes.

Minimise impact for en users

Canonical consultants help you minimise the impact of technology change

for en users an support them through the transition to Ubuntu.

Streamline systems management...

By subscribing to Canonicals Ubuntu Aantage serice, you can access our

Lanscape systems monitoring an management tool, which helps systems

amins improe their prouctiity ramatically.

Get enterprise-class support...

Support aailable through the Ubuntu Aantage serice helps you resole

issues faster an achiee maximum uptime an prouctiity.

Future-proof your estops

Canonical helps you upate your Ubuntu enironment eectiely base

on expert consultancy, Ubuntus programme release cycle an long-term

support options.

By choosing to roll out Ubuntu on the estop with Canonical, many

organisations hae eliminate the stress an ris typically associate with

technology change. German insurer LvM versicherungen, for example, has

successfully migrate 10,000 estops to Ubuntu, with no negatie impact

on their normal, ay-to-ay actiities.

To iscoer how Canonical eliers open-source estops without the ris of

owntime or isruption, contact us toay at https://pages.canonical.com/contact.

Alternatiely, isit us at www.canonical.com, or at www.ubuntu.com.

We neee a Linux-base

estop client that ha a

clear an future commitment

to the estop to ensure

that we were getting the

type of harware coerage

we neee sai Werner

Schmit CIO at LvM ver-

sicherungen. Ubuntu was

an obious choice once we

were conince by Canoni-

cal of its ability to scale an

companys commitment to

support businesses pursu-

ing our Linux client strategy.

Ubuntus been eploye in

our company for some time

now for a range of use cases

- an were ery impresse

with what wee seen.

Werner Schmidt

CIO,

LvM versicherungen


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Fin out more about

Canonical serices:

www.ubuntu.com/business/

services/overview

Contact the team at Canonical:

www.ubuntu.com/business/

services/contact


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Registere Office: 27th Floor Millban Tower, 21-24 Millban, Lonon - Company No. 06870835

2011 Canonical Lt - Ubuntu an Canonical are registere traemars of Canonical Lt

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