[Wylug-discuss] Defence of Linux at work

[Lee Evans]

Hi Gary,

I'm the MD of a small / medium business focussed IT provider in Harrogate.
Sounds to me like the person you had in was looking out for their interests
perhaps more than yours.

We could certainly provide support for your systems, and I could name at
least another 5 to 10 companies who I'm sure would be happy to do the same.
No doubt there are many more in Leeds that I'm unaware of.

Reliance on an individual is definitely to be avoided, but the solution to
that shouldn't I think be technical but rather procedural.

I've seen plenty of Microsoft based networks where poor documentation
rendered it almost 'unsupportable' from an outsiders perspective.

Make sure you have excellent up to date documentation and a trusted
relationship with an external organisation should you need an extra pair of
hands or should the worse happen.

I should say we predominantly sell and support Microsoft solutions ourselves
although I have a strong Linux background and would love to do more OSS /
Linux solutions. I think this leaves me fairly unbiased in this regard.

Cheers

Lee


-----Original Message-----
From: wylug-discuss-bounces at wylug.org.uk
[mailto:wylug-discuss-bounces at wylug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Gary Stainburn
Sent: 24 April 2008 17:42
To: wylug-discuss at wylug.org.uk
Subject: [Wylug-discuss] Defence of Linux at work

Hi folks.

I've got a problem.  I've got a network at work based around Linux servers.

These are mainly just network file servers, but key ones include our Exim / 
Dovecot / Spamassassin based mail server, our Apache / PHP/ Postgresql, and 
our Bacula based backup solution.

We are currently working through a risk assessment / disaster recovery 
evaluation and the management have grave concerns about their dependancy on 
me.

This was highlighted today by the company we have in doing some network 
consultancy.  He said that he could name 20 companies - including his own - 
that could walk in and support a MS based network with Windows Server, 
Exchange SQL server etc., but he could not name one that could support
Linux. 
And went onto support the argument by saying that if he could, they probably

wouldn't be able to support it to the same degree because of the number of 
flavours of Linux.

If I can't put up a strong enough counter-argument we could end up buying in
a 
bucket load of MS software to do what is already working.

Anyone got any possible responses, or better still companies that would be 
willing to provide such support.

Gary
-- 
Gary Stainburn
 
This email does not contain private or confidential material as it
may be snooped on by interested government parties for unknown
and undisclosed purposes - Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, 2000     

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