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2014 Enterprise End User Trends Report Fourth Annual Survey of Enterprise Linux Users December 2014 A Linux Foundation Publication www.linuxfoundation.org Executive Summary: Cloud Computing and Security Drive Increasing Adoption of Linux by the World’s Largest Enterprises The results of the fourth annual survey of the Key findings from this year’s report include: world’s largest enterprise Linux users[1] confirm • Linux leads enterprise shift to cloud. that, as the software-dominated transformation Linux remains the go-to choice for the of the enterprise continues, Linux is the cloud, with 75 percent of enterprises foundation of choice for building the future. reporting that they use Linux as their Linux adoption among the world’s largest primary cloud platform. Compare enterprises continues to grow, according to the that to fewer than 24 percent using annual Enterprise End User Report produced Windows and less than two percent by The Linux Foundation in partnership with using UNIX to support the cloud. Yeoman Technology Group, and it is the primary platform for building the cloud. • Enterprises consider Linux superior in technical prowess, security, and This year’s results illustrate a positive outlook cost. In fact, 78 percent of enterprises for Linux, as the transition to enterprise feel Linux is more secure than most cloud computing increases demand for the other operating systems, an important operating system. Companies are sticking consideration in light of increasing with and investing more in Linux in response scrutiny on the security of projects to this major change. The survey shows that that support the world’s software 87 percent of enterprises are adding more infrastructure. Linux servers this year, and three-quarters are using Linux as their primary cloud platform. • Linux continues its year-over-year growth—at the expense of other In a year when security was under a operating systems. Linux remains microscope due to multiple high-profile the platform of choice for enterprises vulnerabilities, the largest users continue to running it; more than 87 percent rate security among their top reasons for added Linux servers this year, and 82 adopting Linux. It follows only “Feature Set” percent plan to add more in the next in the list of drivers (tied at #2 with “Total year. In fact, deployment on Linux has Cost of Ownership”). In fact, a full 78 percent risen while deployment on Windows of users rate Linux more secure when continues to fall. compared to other operating systems. • Rapid growth continues to raise This survey is not intended to be an concerns about finding Linux talent. assessment of the overall penetration of Linux The concern among the world’s largest in the market, nor is it designed as a cross- enterprises about finding trained Linux platform study. Its focus is on the opinions staff remains at just above 40 percent— and plans of enterprise-class organizations and is the largest concern cited. that use Linux. We received responses from 774 individuals, 262 of whom represent ______________________________________ organizations with sales of $500 million plus or 500+ employees. They provided their [1] Defined as organizations with 500 or more employees thoughts and comments on their operations, and/or revenues of $500 million or more. positioning, and plans for the platform. 2 2014 Enterprise End User Trends Report: Fourth Annual Survey of Enterprise Linux Users Linux and Private or Public Cloud – A Natural Fit Either Way Over the last four years, adoption of Linux Linux as well. Virtually every major public in the enterprise has grown steadily. This cloud provider features Linux as a core part year continued that trend, with more than of its solution, including Google, Rackspace, 87 percent of enterprises adding Linux IBM, Verizon Terremark, and Amazon. servers, and 82 percent planning to add more servers next year. The preference Microsoft’s Azure stands alone as the only will continue to grow as cloud computing major public provider running Windows moves from peripheral to core workloads as its primary platform base. Interestingly, in the enterprise technology stack. Linux is Microsoft recently acknowledged that over the natural platform for cloud computing: 20 percent of the virtual machines on Azure [2] it’s modular, performant, power efficient, are running Linux. Clearly even those who scalable, open source, and ubiquitous. consider their dominant platform to be Windows are demanding accommodation To date, just over half (51 percent) of large for Linux workloads. enterprises are running production systems in the cloud, and 39 percent are planning to In 2011, 70 percent of the organizations in increase their cloud computing activities in the cloud cited Linux as their primary cloud the next 12 months. With 87 percent saying platform. This year, that number climbed to that an open system is important to their 75 percent, with more than half planning on cloud strategy, it is no wonder that Linux is increasing their use of Linux in the cloud. the dominant platform for this space. Compare that to fewer than 24 percent using Windows and less than two percent using Our survey also showed that private cloud UNIX to support the cloud. PRIMARY CLOUD At the same time, the biggest planned usage PLATFORM IN 2014 for new Linux instances is to support new or expanded application and web servers Linux 75% (88 percent), a number that has grown steadily since we first asked the question in Windows 23% 2011. This is also significant to Linux cloud Unix 2% penetration, because nearly 71 percent reported that they are currently running applications and web servers in the cloud. is the option of choice for large enterprises. This Linux-centric cloud trend extends Sixty percent are building pure private beyond enterprises. Seventy-two percent clouds, with only 16 percent relying on a of SMBs using Linux are either currently in public cloud infrastructure and 25 percent the cloud or in the midst of adoption. going with a hybrid model. The prevalence The majority of these users have opted for of private cloud makes the number of public or hybrid models. Their platform of enterprises using Linux in the cloud even choice? A whopping 84 percent use Linux. more significant, since the operating platform ______________________________________ is solely their choice. However, even those electing to use public [2] Source: Microsoft News, “Yes, you heard that right. More or hybrid cloud models are likely relying on than 20% of Azure VMs Run on Linux.” https://twitter.com/ MSFTnews/status/524262781592539136 3 2014 Enterprise End User Trends Report: Fourth Annual Survey of Enterprise Linux Users This steady cloud adoption, combined deployments,” and our survey results with a stable internal usage, adds up to a support that assertion. During the same noticeable market shift. In fact, research period, Windows hardware revenue firm IDC reported earlier this year that increased only 0.1 percent while UNIX while overall server revenue was down revenue continued to plummet an additional (4Q13), Linux hardware revenue increased 20.2 percent.[3] 14.4 percent year-over-year, with Linux servers now representing 28.5 percent of ______________________________________ all server revenue worldwide. IDC noted [3] IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, 4Q13 that “Linux server demand continued to be (http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24704714) positively impacted by cloud infrastructure Feature Set, Security, and Cost of Ownership Are Top Drivers of Adoption Specific drivers for Linux adoption have remained consistent for four years in a TOP DRIVERS FOR row. The top three drivers for adopting Linux continue to be its feature set (74 LINUX ADOPTION percent), security (69 percent), and lower TCO (69 percent). These are all enabled #1 Feature Set by the open source, collaborative nature of the project. At the same time, #2 Total Cost of Ownership and management’s view of Linux has remained Security (tie) consistently positive, with a steady 95-97 percent viewing the platform as equally or #4 No Vendor Lock-in more strategic to the organization every year that we have conducted the survey. #5 Internal Experience with Linux This year’s Heartbleed vulnerability put software security in the spotlight. Certainly Linux is not immune to security threats but to help support underfunded open source with more than 10,000 developers involved projects that support the world’s technology in building and testing the Linux kernel infrastructure. since 2005, the project has strong support. Users appear confident in Linux with their ranking of security among the top drivers LARGEST USERS RATE LINUX MORE for its adoption, and 78 percent rank Linux SECURE THAN OTHER PLATFORMS more secure than other operating systems. Security vulnerabilities are concerns for all More Secure 75% software development, both proprietary and open source, but when software is properly About the Same 17% funded and supported, users can be as Less Secure 2% confident as possible in its overall stability. The Linux Foundation’s Core Infrastructure I Don’t Know 3% Initiative, introduced earlier this year, aims 4 2014 Enterprise End User Trends Report: Fourth Annual Survey of Enterprise Linux Users Greenfield, Virtualization, and Mission-Critical Deployments Drive Linux Growth—At The Expense of Other Operating Systems Regardless of whether or not a server Linux also continues to show consistent is going to be in the cloud, IT initiatives year-over-year growth in planned usage continue to rely on Linux. One of the for development environments and strongest trend lines in our surveys has been databases. Projected use of net new the growth in the use of Linux for mission- Linux servers to support development critical workloads relative to other operating environments is up seven points and systems. There has been a big uptick in this support of relational/enterprise databases number, from a healthy 60 percent in our is up 11 points since 2011.

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