Ubuntu Server Edition: Gaining Momentum?
The next time somebody tells you Ubuntu Linux is just for the desktop, check out Egressive Limited, a solutions provider in New Zealand that’s gaining traction in the Ubuntu Server market. In fact, all of Egressive’s support customers now have Ubuntu servers at the center of their networks, and Egressive uses Ubuntu exclusively as the company’s hosting system. Is this part of a bigger “hidden” trend? The VAR Guy sure seems to think so. Here’s why.
Consider the situation for Dave Lane, one of the key executives at Egressive. As a true believer in Canonical’s business strategy, Lane says Egressive uses Ubuntu for:
- Business servers the company installs and supports for business customers
- Egressive’s own desktop and laptop machines; the company’s development team specializes in Drupal implementation
- A “reasonably extensive” Web hosting infrastructure (primarily LAMP), based both in New Zealand and on virtual machines in the United States.
- An array of virtual machines (all built on Ubuntu hypervisors as well) using Xen, KVM/QEMU/libvirt, and VirtualBox in various desktop development, business failover, and and hosting contexts
Still, The VAR Guy knows Red Hat and Novell largely dominate the Linux business market. And it’s hard to find Ubuntu-focused companies like Egressive. Alas, the mainstream media often writes “Linux” without crediting “Ubuntu” in stories about recent business deployments. And Canonical’s own partner network — ranging from VARs to integrators to service providers and distributors — remains in its infancy. Chances are, there are hundreds of Ubuntu VARs — and thousands of Ubuntu deployments — across the globe that aren’t yet on Canonical’s radar.
Homework for Ubuntu Users
Is there a way to find and recognize Ubuntu deployments across the globe? Actually, there is. If you know of an organization running Ubuntu, then fill out this quick online survey — which The VAR Guy himself helped to craft. The information you share will help to build the Works With U 1,000 — a global list of organizations and businesses running Ubuntu. Works With U, the independent guide to Ubuntu Linux, is one of The VAR Guy’s sister sites.
Ubuntu / Canonical has a business plan? What would that be? So far as I know, they are a charity. 🙂
Unless Canonical is making money from these business deployments you mention, it really doesn’t help them… just as massive free desktop deployments don’t directly help them either… unless they have paying support customers.
I would imagine there are a lot of business deployments using Ubuntu Server for free… but then they wouldn’t really be competing with Red Hat and Novell. They’d be competing with Debian, Fedora, CentOS, and openSUSE… and all the other free distributions.
CentOS has a few million deployments (as I understand it, I don’t have any data to prove that just as it is hard to prove the Ubuntu deployments) but Red Hat and Novell have no trouble calculating their paying customers. If Canonical is really making it with their business plan, then they should have some numbers to report.
varguy, why don’t you investigate that and then you’ll have some real comparison data… and won’t have to guess?
@Scott: Ouch. That last line was a pretty strong parting shot at The VAR Guy. But The VAR Guy respects your points. In fact, he agrees: More folks (including The VAR Guy) have to investigate Canonical’s financial stability and strategy, and it has to involve more than Mark Shuttleworth’s bank account balance.
Oh, but one more thing: Be sure to check out the Works With U 1000, a fast-growing list of businesses and organizations running Ubuntu desktops and servers. Over time, the list (and its members) should reveal how Ubuntu is performing as a business platform.
The VAR Guy will now step off of his soap box, and return to sipping his latte. (Grande, of course.)
Just a note that, while the Ubuntu Foundation may be nonprofit, Canonical is a business intended to make a profit.
Shame to see these guys be so centred around PHP. Most of the experiences I’ve been having with PHP and the type of people who use it just leave a sour stink…
@Lawrence: Sure, Canonical “is a business intended to make a profit.” So are dozens of other open source firms that haven’t cracked the code for profits yet. The VAR Guy is hopeful Canonical will succeed, but needs to do some dumpster diving before he can make informed statements about Canonical’s finances.
@Lawrence, not sure what you mean about “these guys be so centred around PHP”… Are “these guys” Canonical or Egressive?
I’m not sure I understand the stigma of PHP you’re implying… I can think of quite a few of the biggest virtual edifices on the ‘net that are built with PHP, and it’s not because the authors didn’t have other choices (I’m thinking Yahoo, Facebook, the mountain of major sites built on Drupal, Cake, Symphony, even Joomla)… I think PHP is a very valid tool when used by those aware and mindful of its limitations (as with any other tool). At least it’s open source.
On what technology would you rather that “these guys” be centred? Any software business needs to select a small number of technologies on which to focus its energies – doing otherwise spreads things too thin and creates unacceptable costs/risk because a reputable business must maintain ongoing skills in every technology it has ever used commercially.
Regards,
Dave Lane
I like lattes too, but recently I’ve had a desire to down the new Orange Mango Banana Vivanno. October is coming up so the Pumpkin Spice latte is back!!! Nothing like monitoring servers, creating accounts, setting up VMs from the comfort of a local Starbucks. Oh and Ubuntu rocks, but I’m committed to Fedora.
it’ll be great to see Ubuntu in server competition with another enterprise distro…