Open Source Software Blog

Eleven Bizarre Things People Say About Linux [FLIPBOOK]

David Marshall — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 13:00:00 GMT

Never has an operating system been as misunderstood as Linux - here are some of the strangest misconceptions we’ve come across...

In the early days of Linux at the end of the last millennium, there was a lot of fear, uncertainly and doubt about this operating system, and to be honest, that was fair enough. It was a paradigm shift in development model and business model which sounded too good to be true - quite simply the fact that it was free meant it had to be seriously flawed, didn’t it? Here are some of those proposed flaws:

There is no anti-virus software in Linux.

There has not yet been a widespread virus that affects it. However, although it is very challenging for a virus to infect a Linux machine, that does not mean you should be without protection... and there is plenty of good Open Source antivirus software for Linux.

Linux always crashes.

When implemented against best practice architectures and optimised for the business application of choice, Linux has been shown to be one of the most robust and reliable systems available. Don’t just take our word for it, major organisations such as Google, the National Security Agency, Amazon and Virgin have built their massive and reliable infrastructures on Open source.

Surely I cannot run any application on a Linux server?

Red Hat alone has an ecosystem of over 1,000 ISVs. Many tier 1 applications, including SAP, have Linux as their platform of choice. And in the unlikely event that the application has not been ported to Linux, you can still benefit from Linux by running your app in an Open Source VM hosted on Linux. The whole point of Linux is freedom of choice.

What about the future?

Linux is hardware-independent. It can run on anything that is around now. In the future, you will be able to run it on something new.

The ease of updates is one of the outstanding features of Linux. Any bug or security flaw is found straight away and fixed. Open Standards, Open Source.

Isn’t it easy to hack a Linux box with a root account?

No. Tools for running regular security scans of your own network are built into the Linux operating system. Linux is so secure, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 features Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), a joint project developed with the National Security Agency (NSA).

Linux does not connect to my MS Windows machines.

But it does! Using Samba, you can build a seamlessly integrated networked environment. Samba is an important component to seamlessly integrate Linux/UNIX Servers and Desktops into Active Directory environments using the winbind daemon.

Where does Linux leave UNIX?

By 2017, 65% of applications running on proprietary versions of UNIX in 2012 will have been migrated to x86 primarily on Linux, making IT planning essential. Also, Linux scalability and reliability will have surpassed UNIX (Gartner: April, 2012). More and more customers are asking IBM, HP and Dell, the big three server hardware vendors, for Linux on their hardware. Specifically, IDC found that Linux server demand was positively impacted by high performance computing and cloud infrastructure deployments.

Linux is not configurable or adaptable.

Linux distributions give the user full access to configure just about any aspect of their system. Linux also allows the user to automate just about any task. Advanced scripting and high-level programming are standard features. Most operations are accessible via these scripting options. Finally, Linux offers the ultimate in configurability: the source code, to be modified as you see fit.

Linux isn’t international.

Linux is part of the greater Open Source community. This consists of thousands of developers world-wide, both private individuals and organisations from IBM to Red Hat, Canonical to LinuxIT. It is the world’s fastest growing operating system and it’s here to stay.

My organisation cannot accept the patent and copyright issues associated with Linux.

Like commercial software, Open Source software comes with its own unique licenses. Open Source license obligations are triggered when certain conditions are met – often when the Open Source code is "distributed" as part of a software or hardware product. LinuxIT helps enterprises understand the license obligations that come with the Open Source software they use so that they can make informed decisions about Open Source deployments.

There is no commercial support for Linux servers and related software.

This was the first, and strangely in light of the enterprise assurances available for Linux today, is the most persistent fallacy. LinuxIT was established 13 years ago to deliver Best Practice Linux including service and systems management. That’s a fully integrated service offering designed specifically for Linux that applies the highest quality industry standards of ITIL and FCAPS to ensure you have absolute peace of mind and get the most from your Linux investment.

Want to laugh at more technical tomfoolery? Download our eGuide More ridiculous IT service desk requests now!

What Do You Consider to Be the Benefits of Working With a Team of Experts in a Linux Consultancy Firm Versus Hiring Individual Consultants? [POLL]

Simon Mitchell — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 10:00:00 GMT

POLL: What Do You Consider to Be the Benefits of Working With a Team of Experts in a Linux Consultancy Firm Versus Hiring Individual Consultants?

I Didn’t Know They Use Linux Too! [INFOGRAPHIC]

David Marshall — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Linux is used by businesses as varied as KLM, Barclays Bank, Netflix and charities like ALONE. It could also help your organisation to reduce costs, improve productivity and deliver more value.

LinuxIT poll: Linux is winning over proprietary systems

A poll by LinuxIT suggests that, at time of going to press, 55.8% of our readers think that Linux will replace proprietary systems as the number one operating system.

Linux: a catalyst for innovation and change

So you don’t want to be an Open Source guinea pig? You’re not; it’s an established technology used by everyone from hobbyists to multi-national businesses. Tesco, for example, moved to Linux check outs in 2000.

Organisations in every sector are using Linux in innovative ways, and are finding that Linux gives their teams more freedom and choice:

Many Cloud service providers are building their public clouds on Open Stack,the emerging Open Source platform for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
In January 2013, Barclays Bank said it has reduced its IT spending for the development of new software and applications by 90 percent after moving to an internal private cloud environment and using open source Linux software.

“Linux can be used as a means or as the catalyst to restructure your IT department, moving it away from any silos that may exist to re-distribute responsibilities, and to renew or enhance your staff’s skills. It can be used to introduce the benefits of outsourcing, which will enable your organisation to keep its costs down while increasing and maintaining its service levels.”
Mike Curtis, Executive Director - Service Delivery at Linux consulting firm LinuxIT.

Linux: the third sector can save money and focus their energies elsewhere

Linux is perfect for the third sector – ideal for charities and other non-profit organisations.

TechRepublic wrote about Jack Wallen’s article ‘Why Linux is a perfect fit for charities and non-profits’ in February 2011: “Linux and charity go hand in hand. From cost savings to reliable computing environments, Linux fundamentally belongs in non-profits.”

“LinuxIT enables a third sector organisation to deliver the key aspects of its mission: a focus on the platform without the risk and lower total cost of ownership while saving 60% against the costs of managing such a project internally through the delivery of a holistic set of best practices.”
Mike Curtis, Executive Director - Service Delivery at LinuxIT

No lock-ins, gain freedom of choice

Linux makes organisations’ more efficient. Linux is cost-effective and innovative.
Linux is free of vendor lock-ins, which can exist with Windows and UNIX.
Achieve improved systems management automation with Linux.
Linux allows you to design and implement a standardised operating environment management platform.
LinuxIT can help you define your Linux strategy when implementing and supporting mission critical systems with its Best Practice SASS.

To find out more, download our eGuide Key questions CEOs should ask their CIO now!

Why Is IT Bucking the Economic Trend and How Can You Do Likewise?

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Working with a team of Linux specialists, each of whom offers complementary skills and experiences, is far better than working with a disparate array of individual IT contractors who might leave you high and dry. They might not intend to do so, but that’s the risk organisations take whenever they hire them to support their IT. So let’s take a look at how you can reduce this risk by working with an Open Source specialist.

With economic growth at the turn of the year on the whole still very weak, the technology markets continue to buck the trend with Techmark up 10% and the NASDAQ up by 13%. One of the principle contributing factors to the success of the IT industry is that businesses recognise that when budgets are tight, judicious investment in IT can enable them to survive and even thrive. It actively supports and impacts their business strategy by simultaneously allowing firms to reduce costs without compromising quality to their customers and continually driving competitive advantage through innovation.

Innovation, quality assurance and cost reduction

According to Gartner there are three principle areas of growth forecast in IT for 2013; devices, enterprise software, and IT services. It is no coincidence that each of these aligns respectively with innovation, quality assurance and cost reduction. Handheld devices in particular have revolutionised the way in which organisations market to and serve their customers. It has been a significant catalyst in driving innovative ways for firms to differentiate their offering from competitors, as consumers look for ease of access to information, products and services. Maintaining data security, integrity and accessibility is paramount as information and knowledge are the lifeblood of any business. Enterprise software offers consistent quality assurance to all stakeholders including business leaders, employees, partners, and of course customers. Finally, IT services are growing as firms look to cut costs by leveraging the operational efficiencies, and economies of scale and scope available from providers of commoditised IT services whilst focusing their in-house resources on the core business.

Proliferation of Linux

Linux and Open Source Software have been central to each of these areas of growth. On many of the devices Linux is the operating system (OS), e.g. Android and now Ubuntu. In Enterprise software, companies like Red Hat, Ubuntu, Oracle, Alfresco, Zarafa, Puppet and Nagios are delivering Open Source Software (OSS) with all of the quality assurance and indemnification that firms demand from proprietary software. Finally as Linux proliferates throughout organisations and increasingly underpins mission-critical business applications once sat on UNIX, CIOs are looking to streamline deployment and management of Linux to drive operational efficiencies and economies of scale. The technologies and services have been developed and benchmarked by specialist IT service providers over the past decade and are now being adopted and evolved as best practices.

Changing Times

“In the past organisations have often turned to the contractor market for Linux and OSS skills”, says Dawes-Huish, CEO of LinuxIT. “They didn’t have the skills in-house and Linux was often a non-critical OS at the edge of networks and so wasn’t generally subject to strategic planning. A contractor could install and configure Linux easily and leave them with a server that didn’t fall over”. Times have changed though. Linux is now more often than not a mission-critical operating environment which on average makes up 30% of the servers in the data centre. CIOs are often suffering from technology, configuration and process variances introduced by uncoordinated contractors. “9 out of 10 of our Linux audits show disparate Linux distros, versions, management tools and systems management processes” says Curtis, Executive Director - Service Delivery at LinuxIT. Due to the unique way in which Linux has often entered and proliferated through organisations, there have often been no standards against which Linux is designed, built and managed. This creates operational inefficiencies where more investment than necessary is pumped into building, deploying and managing Linux.

Contractor vs. Services Specialist

What is needed is standardisation, automation and repeatability- effectively standardisation to establish consistency across the Linux estate, automation to reduce the need for resource-intensive manual intervention and repeatability to create sustainable systems management processes. This is where the value of a services organisation with a set of holistic and integrated best practices really comes into play against the lone Linux contractor. “A contractor just can’t have the breadth of experience and knowledge to design and implement best practice strategies, architectures, service and systems management for Linux” claims Curtis. “They are often very talented but they can never supplant the extensive offering of a mature services specialist. For starters, they can’t amass the diversity of reference architectures or accreditations needed to offer a holistic set of best practices”, he argues. “Don’t get me wrong, we need contractors but to get the full return on investment possible from standardising Linux across the organisation, it has to be coordinated by a team of specialists that can deliver business and ITSM consulting, technical and service architecting, implementation, training and support services, all properly project managed.”

To find out more about the advantages of Linux, download our eGuide Top Tips for Preserving Choice - A Fundamental Component of Any Linux Strategy now!

Auditing Your Linux Infrastructure Impartially [FLIPBOOK]

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Discover how an independent Linux infrastructure audit delivers additional value and benefits.

Auditing Linux is no different to any IT audit in the sense that it is about verifying the security, compliance and efficiency of the platform. Done regularly it provides invaluable feedback and peace of mind for CIOs and IT managers, as well as the opportunity to identify ways of cutting costs and driving competitive advantage through innovation.

Security

A Linux security audit should be tailored to the applications and services running on your servers and requires a good understanding of the applications, network stack and Linux operating system.

Consider following these steps:

Identify the policies relevant to the server and applications
Perform a benchmark audit against a recognised security standard (e.g. CIS), extracting the relevant recommendations
Perform penetration tests
Inspect relevant logs
Compare and scan files
Check for suspicious activities and rootkits
Re-audit on a regular basis.

Don’t shy away from implementing perceived complex security tools like SELinux. If you don’t have these skills in-house, outsource the audit.

Compliance

Open Source licensing can be complex and confusing if you are accustomed to living in the world of proprietary licensing. When it comes to auditing Linux make sure you understand and meet legal conditions for use of Open Source Software (OSS) components. Again, look to experts to help you understand how to manage OSS under different licenses and avoid penalties or exposure from lack of compliance. Get this wrong and there can be serious financial and service-related ramifications; get it right and there can be significant CAPEX and OPEX savings to be made across the estate.

Include in the audit:

Linux software discovery (Enterprise and Community)
A review of the OSS licenses (Enterprise and Community)
Evaluation of support options
Review of 3rd party support conditions
Roadmap analysis.

Efficiency

The key to operational efficiency is standardisation. Streamlining deployment and management of Linux becomes a highly effective way of increasing efficiency within your IT department. It lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO), while simultaneously improving manageability and performance.

When auditing you are looking for:

Multiple distros
Configuration variances
Siloed systems
Unautomated deployment and management processes
Disparate systems management tools
Documentation
Skills matrices.

Audits without pain

In an ideal world a Linux audit should be a pain-free, regular check up that simply ensures the controls originally implemented are still operating well, safeguarding information assets and maintaining data integrity. The extent to which it is painless though, really depends on whether best practices have been applied in the original set up and ongoing operation.

Challenges unique to Linux

Because of the particular nuances of OSS, Linux acquisition often bypasses the procurement organisation that traditionally enforced legal, contractual, financial, and other best practice policies, and proliferates comparatively unchecked. This has in many cases resulted in the existence of multiple distros with configuration variances across the infrastructure and generally less well structured Linux systems management processes than for proprietary operating systems.

That is all changing though - it has had to as Linux increasingly becomes the first choice platform for mission-critical, tier-one business applications. Organisations that have benefited from the low cost of acquisition, stability and performance advantages associated with Linux, now want the operational efficiencies and peace of mind to go with it. Nothing removes fear, uncertainty and doubt like best practices, and efficiencies through economies of scale only come from consistent, repeatable and continually improving processes.

Sleep soundly: outsource

Best Practice LinuxSASS is a unique, holistic and fully integrated set of best practices for Linux. Working with the right consultancy, organisations quickly and efficiently assess what they need to do to benefit from best practice Linux and once in place, auditing becomes a simple and painless exercise to maintain and continually improve those practices.

Find out more: download our eGuide Top Tips for Preserving Choice - A Fundamental Component of Any Linux Strategy now!

Ten Tips on Linux Systems Management for SysAdmins [SLIDESHARE]

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:00:00 GMT

Replace chaos with predictability and cover yourself in glory.

This advice follows Best Practice Linux Systems Management methodologies and can be undertaken in-house or by a specialist partner.

01) Perform a thorough audit of your current Linux environments including what varieties of distributions, versions and configurations exist and where, why and how they are deployed and managed. This includes all instances of Linux existing and planned, the hardware it sits on and applications it underpins, and how it integrates into the environment. Be sure to document.

02) Undertake a skills assessment to establish whether the necessary competencies exist in-house or indeed with your service provider. Beware, there are very few service providers that have these competencies themselves and contractors simply can’t offer the integrated services approach.

03) Evaluate and select one or more Linux distros to consolidate on according to-:

In-house skills/familiarity/preferences
Vendor software stack/ecosystem/roadmap
Third party software legal/support conditions
Commercial features (including pricing and support) and community alternatives
Risk appetite.

04) Design a standard operating environment (SOE) with Core Builds that support defined sets of target hardware, pre-configured services and applications on top of Linux. This will allow you to install the system with the required configuration automatically performed.

Core Builds allow systems to be deployed rapidly and in a standardised manner. Reference architectures really help here.

05) Apply a change management process to ensure consistent and ongoing changes to the Core Builds are applied. This will include a development, QA and deployment cycle for-:

New errata or bug fixes
Upgrades to new versions
Authentication/network changes
New application software
New hardware.

06) Select and implement a SOE Management Platform (SOEMP) such as Red Hat Satellite Server and Puppet that provides the Core Build's quality assurance, deployment and maintenance cycle. It should provide-:

A centralised management platform
The ability to manage several Core Builds in parallel
An automated way to deploy errata and configuration changes to Core Build installations
Integration with asset management in order to automatically configure systems.

07) Alongside the SOEMP, consider implementing technologies that provide an organised approach to identity and access management. Centrify, for example, can help you manage and enforce fine-grained control over user access and privileges on Linux systems eliminating the security risks associated with too many users having root permissions. They will provide stronger security, improved compliance and reduced operational costs.

08) Design and implement monitoring and alerting on your Linux systems. This will allow you to ensure they are functioning optimally and in the event of a failure, you will be alerted allowing you to begin remediation processes before outages affect business processes, end-users, or customers. Nagios is a great Free Open Source Software (FOSS) option.

09) Maintain the security of your Linux systems at all times through-:

Maintenance of optimal security configuration within each of the Core Builds
User identity management
User activity monitoring
Security alarm & event reporting
Data privacy
Audit trail management
Virus & malware management
Denial of service management.

10) Document and share with management and peers the systems management processes and supporting technologies that you have chosen and applied to the Linux environment. Be sure to impress on them that by including fault, configuration, performance and security management in your plan, you are adhering to industry best practice. You can’t do any better than that!

If you have opted to undertake this systems management process in-house, the right open source consultancy will offer a best practice Linux assessment service to independently endorse your technologies and processes for complete peace of mind and assurance for you and your organisation.

Just for fun, why not download our eGuide More ridiculous IT service desk requests now!

Bust the Dams: Why Aren’t You Getting the Most Out of Your Linux Deployments?

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:00:00 GMT

Are you either deploying or planning a Linux implementation in your organisation? Then stop for a moment - learn how to avoid and circumvent known issues and find out how to standardise your Linux the right way.

The prevailing wisdom suggests that the key to success for any organisation is to create the optimal balance between cost reduction, quality and innovation. If your operating costs are too high, you’re not competitive, but if you cut too deeply your quality may suffer, and if there isn’t enough investment in innovation you run the risk of losing ground to your competitors.

This tension is never more evident than within IT. In the tough operating environment within which we find ourselves, budgets are being frozen whilst simultaneously users and customers demand ever increasing reliability and richness of functionality. How do you reconcile these seemingly opposed forces?

What is commoditisation?

Thankfully, natural forces are working for you in the guise of commoditisation. Commoditisation in any industry is inevitable as a natural effect of market forces. It arises when from all of the divergent options available, one dominant standard emerges. Take for example hardware - the mainframe, minicomputer, and microcomputer markets all began with proprietary hardware, from the Univac to the Apple II. But these days, commodity server hardware consists of interchangeable parts available from multiple sources, all of which connect through standard interfaces. This commoditisation has driven hardware manufacturers to differentiate a level up with software and services that deliver real value to their customers. Effectively once standardisation has been completed at one level, industries emerge atop them to create new and innovative products.

How has commoditisation affected Linux?

Now that’s all very well at the macro level but how does that apply to the IT department? The key point is that until there is standardisation, disparate ways of doing things creates complexities that drain resources. Wherever those complexities exist, that is where the effort and money gets dammed. Standardise and those resources can flow downstream to irrigate new pastures.

Continuing with that metaphor, where is this dam most often found on the Linux River? Well it’s on the move and has been for the 13 years we’ve been consulting with organisations using Linux. It started up near the source when no-one knew even if it was legal, then onto which distributions of Linux would dominate, and so on. The greatest hold up was the lack of enterprise-class support and assurance available and so early adopters invested a great deal of their time and money supporting Linux themselves. Red Hat busted that dam back in 2002 with the introduction of Enterprise Linux.

Since then it has been flowing much more freely but more recently the demands on the river have grown as Linux has proliferated throughout the organisation. No longer is it simply watering infrastructure services, it’s now irrigating fields of mission-critical apps. The final obstacle to optimal flow, i.e. complete commoditisation, is eradicating the complexities that have arisen with configuration variances spreading across the estate and ad hoc systems management processes. Due to the unique way in which Linux has often entered and proliferated through organisations, there have often been no standards against which Linux is designed, built and managed. This creates operational inefficiencies where more investment than necessary is pumped into building, deploying and managing Linux, at the expense of the much higher value-generating applications downstream.

Best practice

What is needed is standardisation, automation and repeatability - effectively, standardisation to establish consistency across the Linux estate, automation to reduce the need for resource-intensive manual intervention and repeatability to create sustainable systems management processes. In practice you need a way of assessing, designing and implementing standardised Linux and associated services within your environment. The following provides a phased approach to doing just that.

Perform a thorough audit of your current Linux environments including what varieties of distributions, versions and configurations exist and where, why and how it is deployed and managed. This includes all instances of Linux existing and planned, the hardware it sits on and applications it underpins and how it integrates into the environment. Be sure to document.
Undertake a skills assessment to establish whether the necessary competencies exist in-house or indeed with your service provider. Beware, there are very few service providers that have these competencies themselves and contractors simply can’t offer the integrated services approach.
Design a standard operating environment (SOE) and management platform that is both optimised for your hardware and applications, and conceived with efficient systems management in mind. Reference architectures really help here.
Define the systems management processes and supporting technologies that are to be applied to the Linux environment. Be sure to include fault, configuration, performance and security management in this plan.
Bust the dam!

Next steps

If you want to capitalise on the expertise and experience of a specialist in undertaking this process, LinuxIT’s Best Practice Linux Architectures and Service Management approach delivers this service with minimal disruption and maximum return, in a timely and cost effective manner. If this is done right the first time, you’ll derive immediate and ongoing benefits. Done ineffectively, the investment can be high and the efficiency gains negligible.

With this type of approach you can, through Linux and your IT operations, reconcile the seemingly irreconcilable; cost reduction, quality enhancement and investment in innovation. By fully commoditising Linux, you can reduce the TCO of your Linux platform, whilst improving reliability, availability and serviceability, freeing up resources for innovation to drive competitive advantage.

Discover our advice for IT freedom: download the eGuide Top Tips for Preserving Choice - A Fundamental Component of Any Linux Strategy now!

Happy 21st Birthday! Linux Comes of Age [INFOGRAPHIC]

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 07:00:00 GMT

Linux has turned 21 years old last year, and its chance to supersede rival operating systems like UNIX has finally arrived. Find out why...

Long live Linux

Analyst firm Gartner predicts the UNIX decline will be steepest between 2014 and 2015. At least that’s what its report, ‘The Future of UNIX: Hazy and Overcast, So Reach for the Umbrella’ suggests.

“Purely monolithic UNIX will decline as infrastructure architects migrate legacy applications such as ERP off UNIX; one scenario shows the period of sharpest UNIX decline beginning 2014 to 2015.”

‘The Future of UNIX: Hazy and Overcast, So Reach for the Umbrella’, a Gartner report by George J. Weiss, Andrew Butler and Philip Dawson

Coming of age

Linux celebrated its 21st birthday on August 25. To reach this point Linux has been through its childhood and adolescence and now is entering adulthood. For the first 11 years it was all about the technology. In 2002, at the age of 11 it was initiated into the commercial world through Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux business model. Now at 21 it is focussed on being a man amongst the mighty men of UNIX and to do so effectively, is all about operations.

Best practice

Technically, Linux offers a robust, flexible, scalable and secure operating environment very cost effectively. Commercially, through the Enterprise Linux business model developed by Red Hat and now applied by most serious Linux vendors, it also provides the assurances and support organisations demand. Operationally is where it is coming of age and that’s all about best practice. Understanding where and when to apply Linux, then streamlining deployment and management to lower the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), while simultaneously improving manageability and performance. This is where the economies of scale come in and Linux can finally assert its dominance over UNIX.

“The road from proprietary to Open Systems is long and often challenging, but it represents nothing less than a revolution in the IT industry.”

Renowned technology expert Professor Jim Norton

“LinuxIT assists organisations by applying the best practice Linux Strategy, Architectures, Service and Systems Management approach to ensure that not only do organisations get a great technology and enterprise support, but they also capitalise on impressive economies of scale as Linux proliferates throughout the datacentre.”

Mike Curtis, Executive Director - Service Delivery at Linux consulting firm LinuxIT

In conclusion

Linux has proven its worth as the platform of choice technically, commercially and now operationally. The Open Source community, made up of incredible individuals and companies, have made Linux a technical stalwart. Red Hat normalised its adoption through the Enterprise Linux approach making it commercially viable. Now, as it is being asked to do the grown up jobs, underpinning tier-1 apps as the mission-critical platform of choice, solid best practices are being applied to its operation so it can truly come of age.

“Over the last 21 years, Linux has become a professional technology. With the emergence of a holistic best practices approach specifically designed to address the nuances of Linux, it can only continue to dominate as it drives operational efficiencies alongside its incredible performance attributes. Quite simply, all that organisations have to do is apply these practices.”

Mike Curtis, Executive Director - Service Delivery at Linux consulting firm LinuxIT

Just for fun, download our eGuide More ridiculous IT service desk requests now!

Don’t Leave the Gate Open: Essential Advice for Securing Your Linux Server Environments

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:00:00 GMT

A look at how you can ensure that your Linux enterprise servers are always secure and robust. Open Source doesn’t have to mean complex management of highly customised systems.

Don’t leave the gate open: secure Linux

People often wrongly think that Open Source software like Linux is inherently insecure because:

It provides an open gate to miscreants like malevolent hackers
It is so highly customisable that there is no standardisation
There are no best practice standards for secure architectures and systems management

The truth is that with the right security measures in place, Linux is more secure than any operating system or software solution. The National Security Agency (NSA) even provides guidelines on securing Linux as one of the most secure operating systems.

It’s a case of not locking all the windows and then leaving the front door open. And there is a maturing approach to security management supported by enterprise ready systems management tools.

What does securing Linux include?

Designing and configuring Linux builds with security front of mind
Evolving and maintaining optimal security configuration
Applying support patches and security updates promptly
Monitoring and reporting on security configuration variances
Tightening networking and user access
Defining and following appropriate systems management methodologies
Using centralised management and authentication services
Using logging and auditing to deliver quality assurance and standards compliance, e.g. ISO 27001 and PCI DSS
Reviewing policies and procedures at regular intervals
Selecting systems management tools like Puppet and Satellite Server for core build configuration management and deployment, Centrify for user authentication and Nagios for monitoring

Make security your default option

Mike Curtis, Executive Director - Service Delivery Director at Linux consulting firm LinuxIT, says: “Linux has all the attributes to make it an extremely secure operating system. The problem is that because there has been little access to best practice architectures and systems management, Linux is rarely designed and configured to be ‘secure by default’”.

When you add to that the inevitable configuration variances that arise as Linux is deployed by different teams, at different times for various purposes across the data centre, implementing and maintaining the appropriate security measures becomes incredibly complex. At best this results in operational inefficiencies but more often than not it also renders organisations vulnerable. That’s risky, particularly in today's IT infrastructures which often reside on widely distributed networks that are commonly linked to the internet, providing intruders with readily available entry points to corporate systems and data.

How is ‘Linux security by default’ achieved?

The key is standardisation. A way of ensuring security standards are consistently applied in the design, deployment and maintenance of Linux. Linux is configured with security in mind and that security is continually improved and maintained against a backdrop of ever evolving threats.

There are three fundamental facets to achieving this standardisation:

A Standard Operating Environment (SOE) - Core Linux builds that ensure it is designed and configured against standards that include ‘security by default’.
A Standard Operating Environment Management Platform (SOEMP) – Systems management tools that maintain quality assurance through consistent and efficient deployment and maintenance of Linux.
Best practice systems management processes – Establishing proper governance through policy, process and associated tools to efficiently manage the security of existing and future builds.

Standard Operating Environment (SOE)

An SOE is a carefully defined core build specification. The goal of the Linux core build is to help organisations develop a repeatable process for implementing secure and optimised Linux system builds across their diverse hardware platforms, business applications and workloads.

The core build is designed specifically for each system architecture so that all required security configuration is automatically performed in order to integrate the system into an existing IT infrastructure such as, for example, authentication services.

The configuration is then dynamically modified for specific hardware profiles and network and security services depending on what and where the system is. A core build essentially allows systems to be deployed rapidly and consistently in a secure manner.

Mike Curtis says: “The core build is designed to eliminate unnecessary software packages and services, thereby reducing vulnerabilities and exposure to risk.”

Standard Operating Environment Management Platform (SOEMP)

An SOEMP is a set of different technologies such as Red Hat’s Satellite Server and Puppet that gives system administrators the power to easily automate repetitive tasks and quickly deploy and proactively manage the SOE and its security.

It is used to drive operational efficiencies and maintain security standards by reducing configuration variances.

Specifically, they enable systems administrators to:

Manage and efficiently deploy the SOE core builds from a centralised management platform.
Deploy errata and configuration changes to core build installations.
Simulate configuration changes to the core builds before enforcing them.
Enforce the deployed desired state automatically, correcting any configuration variances.
Report on the differences between actual and desired states and any changes made enforcing the desired state.

An SOEMP significantly reduces the cost of maintaining a core build’s security, quality assurance, deployment and maintenance cycle.

Best practice systems management processes

In order to maintain the security of your Linux systems, security management must form a key component of a holistic Linux systems management methodology such as FCAPS.

Security management of the Linux estate is concerned with:

Maintenance of optimal security configuration within each of the core builds
User identity management
User activity monitoring
Security alarm and event reporting
Data privacy
Audit trail management
Virus and malware management
Denial of service management

Alongside the SOEMP, technologies like Centrify provide an organised approach to identity and access management that results in stronger security, improved compliance and reduced operational costs. Centrify can help you manage and enforce fine-grained control over user access and privileges on Linux systems eliminating the security risks associated with too many users having root permissions.

Getting ‘best practice’ advice and assistance

LinuxIT helps organisations across all industry verticals, from SMBs to global blue chips, to apply Linux security best practices so as to mitigate risk and drive operational efficiencies. “By integrating best practice Linux architectures and security management methodologies with enterprise tools such as Red Hat’s Satellite Server, Puppet, Centrify and Nagios, LinuxIT delivers instant and repeatable value to any Linux estate,” says Mike Curtis. “But don’t just take our word for it, let us prove it with an unobtrusive assessment of your current configurations and practices that will at least deliver real peace of mind and very likely knowledge and best practices that will strengthen your security and keep it that way.”

Find out more - download our eGuide: Top Tips for Preserving Choice - A Fundamental Component of Any Linux Strategy now!

Where Does Linux Fit with Your IT Department Structure?

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Explore how Linux can save your organisation time and money while reducing operational risks and increasing its performance.

Most of us would like to win the lottery. Money is no longer an issue and suddenly our quality of life goes through the roof. But winning the lottery is often not all it’s cracked up to be. One of the commonly reported problems, particularly for working class winners, is an identity crisis. Where do they now sit in society? They have access to a life of high culture but relate more readily to popular culture. Linux faces some very similar challenges. Its low cost of acquisition can be like a cash injection into the IT department, but where does Linux sit; with the aristocratic UNIX team or the proletariat Windows guys?

Linux requires an approach specific to itself – it doesn’t fit in either the UNIX or Windows areas but integrates well into both and can form the bridge between the two.

If you wish to leverage the benefits of Linux and Open Source (innovations and agility) within a corporate environment and not put your infrastructure at risk then you need to understand both the benefits and the risks – your framework for Linux use must encompass elements from both types of approach and deliver the combined benefits of each.

Linux and UNIX

Linux is a UNIX like operating system. Because of this history and the heritage of the two products, Linux and UNIX have a common foundation. Many of the tools, utilities, and free software products that are standard under Linux were originally developed as free alternatives to the versions available on UNIX. That makes the software skills very similar.

Linux and Microsoft

On the other hand, Linux, like Microsoft products, was originally developed for and predominantly sits on x86 hardware. It does not demand the big ticket hardware that UNIX is exclusively designed for and therefore Linux engineers are not likely to be skilled with UNIX hardware architectures. Add to this the inevitable skills and certification snobbery, and the barricades start to rise. As the famous computer scientist, Dennis Ritchie, is quoted as saying: "UNIX is simple. It just takes a genius to understand its simplicity." Those geniuses may frown on those with ‘only’ Linux skills but they have much more in common than with the MCSEs down the hall.

Apart from Windows being a far less demanding environment to learn, some argue that the Microsoft certification program was compromised and certificates may as well be put in Christmas crackers. On the other hand, with the mission critical applications typically left to UNIX, Linux has historically been used to provide infrastructure services which position them closer to the Microsoft team again. However, that is changing fast as increasingly tier 1 application vendors, e.g. SAP, certify Linux on x86 as their preferred operating environment. In fact, according to Gartner, by 2017, 65% of applications running on proprietary versions of UNIX in 2012 will have been migrated to x86 (primarily on Linux).

Defining your Linux strategy

Understanding these differences is important but they are not to blame for the challenges in integrating a Linux competency. It all comes down to strategy and due to the nuances of Open Source software that strategy is often at best unclear and emergent. Linux typically got into the organisation a decade ago via the back door and has proliferated organically. It is vital that an organisation first understands and articulates the Linux strategy – why have they chosen to implement Linux and what advantages does it deliver over UNIX and Microsoft? If they intend to build the competencies required to design, deploy and manage Linux in-house rather than outsource to a specialist, then where is it going to sit?

Is it a part of the infrastructure team, the mission critical apps team or a team traversing both? “Establishing this can be a straightforward process but is all too often missed” says Simon Mitchell, Executive Director at LinuxIT.

Our experience

LinuxIT’s ‘H to V’ model is designed to help CIOs and IT Directors to understand how to formulate and implement a successful Linux strategy that drives operational efficiencies at the infrastructure level, improves productivity at the application layer and ultimately delivers competitive advantage for the firm and greater value to the customer and shareholder. “The approach is not new”, says Mitchell. “It relies on the fundamental understanding that effective business information management is dependent on effective management of not just information and technology resources, but also people”.

What LinuxIT is able to do after 13 years of Linux specialisation in the enterprise, is align the IT strategy with the business strategy through a deep understanding of the idiosyncrasies of Linux, both technology and people.

Just for fun, why not download our eGuide 'Ridiculous IT Requests - The Early Years' now!

Do You Plan to Grow Your Linux Enterprise Server Assets over the Next Year? [POLL]

David Marshall — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 10:00:00 GMT

POLL: Do You Plan to Grow Your Linux Enterprise Server Assets over the Next Year?

Systems Management Best Practice: Harnessing the FCAPS Model

David Marshall — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:00:00 GMT

If the unprecedented and accelerating proliferation of Linux servers within the market is mirrored within your organisation, you may already, or certainly will at some point, find them unmanageable unless you apply best practice systems management today.

The increasing reliance on Linux in a mission critical capacity means that more and more Linux servers are required to keep organisations operating to full capacity. One Linux server is simple to manage, but 100 Linux enterprise servers can fast become unmanageable unless proven best practice systems management is constantly applied to keep everything under control.

The problem

“IT Directors have not had access to a best practice standard for Linux and this is a weakness of the Open Source model because no one owns the technology”, says Simon Mitchell, Executive Director of Linux consulting firm LinuxIT. He adds that “It can be developed to a high standard but some of the important policies and processes aren’t applied as usual.”

He explains that in the early days, Linux was predominantly used for tactical and non-strategic reasons. And because the standard commercial model and associated costs didn’t apply, it wasn’t always evaluated with the same rigour as a proprietary technology. Due to the investment required of proprietary software, ROI calculations, POCs, pilots and security assessments, for example, form part of the standard process of adoption. Linux didn’t always get put through these filters - it very often got in via the back door. What that means is that there is rarely any explicit strategy for selection, design, build or management of these servers. Instead, there is all too often a patchwork of disparate Linux distributions, configurations and management processes with little or no documentation. That spells real risk, especially if the engineers who installed it and manage it leave the business. So it’s imperative to identify and apply best practices against Linux as soon as possible. Otherwise, at best Linux will not deliver the full potential of its inherent advantages, and at worst disaster could be looming.

Best practice

Considering Linux through the lens of ‘best practice’ allows IT directors and CIOs to identify whether the strategy, architecture, service and systems management are congruent with their standards and fit for purpose. With this understanding they can evaluate to what extent Linux successfully underpins their mission critical applications so as to deliver value and competitive advantage to the business. But who offers any best practice Linux advice in general, let alone specifically around systems management? An Open Source software vendor will offer some best practice advice around Linux systems architecture and management, but they are limited by their portfolio of technologies. Linux does not operate in isolation. Rather, to be optimised as part of an Application Ready Infrastructure (ARI), it must be integrated with other Open Source and proprietary technologies which they are not skilled in. What is required is a specialist consultancy firm like LinuxIT that can help you ensure that your strategy, design implementation and management of Linux as part of an ARI are strategic – focused on business performance and risk mitigation.

FCAPS

LinuxIT delivers holistic best practice for Linux that includes strategy, architecture, service and systems management. FCAPS is the best practice systems management approach delivered by LinuxIT. It stands for Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security. It was historically designed for telecom companies, but LinuxIT advises that it “Encapsulates the key areas you should think about when managing IT. LinuxIT recommends the FCAPS model because it is applying best practices systems management to Linux, and this is important because Linux has not been attributed to any type of best practice for systems management in the past”. There just hasn’t been any other organisation with the focus, breadth of knowledge, expertise, reference architectures, industry experience and partnerships required to do so.

Organisations understand that more value will be derived from their investment when they apply best practices and as a result they will gain from reduced risks, increased productivity and lower costs achieved by creating economies of scale. Organisations that haven’t followed best practices, like documenting build and following change control policies or implementing proper security measures and monitoring capabilities leave themselves vulnerable to absolute chaos if they lose the knowledge set locked inside someone’s head.

“The very strengths of the Open Source development and business model have often generated their weaknesses”, explains Mitchell. Because it was often free and invariably very stable, the same need for rigorous policy and process to be applied was not always appreciated. He firmly believes that Linux should be applied to the same standards as those used with UNIX and other technologies.

Mitchell adds: “IBM and HP, for example, have developed best practice over time by refining reference architectures and systems management models. Enterprise quality Linux is comparatively immature and so is has not had the same ecosystem of professional services around it. What it now needs, and CIO’s are crying out for, is the development and application of best practice standards to the extent you would see within their UNIX estates.”

Questions to ask yourself...

So how does one start to understand what best practices are available for Linux and to what extent they are being followed within their business? LinuxIT suggests you start by asking yourself the following questions:

What’s your Linux strategy, i.e. how does it deliver superior value and competitive advantage to your business?
Where are you in the cycle of adoption of Linux, i.e. are you applying a best practice service management approach such as ITIL and where are you in that cycle?
Against what best practice standards have you designed your architectures, i.e. how is Linux designed and implemented as part of an optimised Application Ready Infrastructure (ARI)?
Do you have a policy for best practice systems management, i.e. to what extent are the bases covered in managing Linux in relation to faults, configuration, performance and security?

If you are unable to answer all of these questions to your satisfaction you are potentially at risk; best case scenario at risk of not earning the full return on investment possible from Linux, worst case of a systems failure and business disaster.

LinuxIT can assist organisations by helping their IT directors and systems administrators to answer these questions and by working with them to apply the FCAPS model and industry standard best practices. Then, no matter how many servers your organisation has, Linux won’t get out of control and your IT will be highly efficient and manageable.

To find out more, download our eGuide Key questions CEOs should ask their CIO now!

The DevOps Approach How It Could Transform Your Business [FLIPBOOK]

David Marshall — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Through cultural and technological change, the entire development-to-operations lifecycle can be delivered as one end-to-end process.

Definition: Collaboration on tasks performed by a company's application development and systems operations teams.

What is the DevOps approach?

As with so many emerging IT trends, definitions vary wildly and create significant confusion. This creates fear and ultimately acts as a barrier to adoption of the service innovation itself - one only need consider the notion of Cloud to appreciate what a problem this can be. DevOps is no different.

So we’re not going to get embroiled in that debate here. Rather, what we want to do is discuss why DevOps increasingly relates to Linux and how one can benefit from its principles.

Linux comes of age

Linux is the fastest growing Operating System underpinning business applications. From Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, to business intelligence, to collaboration tools, most major enterprise applications run on Linux. For many, including SAP, it is the platform of choice.

Linux for business

In order, however, for those applications to deliver the performance and competitive advantage demanded in this fast changing market, they must be incredibly stable but without inhibiting fast-paced development and innovation.

“It is the reconciliation of these two opposing forces, stability and change, that DevOps seeks to enable” explains Simon Mitchell, Executive Director at Linux consulting firm LinuxIT. “In ITIL terms, it’s about creating an application environment that is geared up to deliver continual improvement. To get to that point, CIOs and IT Managers need to consider their Linux environment in relation to the whole service cycle”.

Getting started

It is vital that an organisation first understands and articulates its Linux strategy – why have you chosen to implement Linux? Are you going to build the competence to design, deploy and manage it in-house, or outsource? According to Mitchell, this is a straightforward process, but it is often missed.

Next, the Linux environment must be designed and built against best practice to form part of the optimal Application Ready Infrastructure (ARI). “This is a crucial phase in bringing development and operations together”, argues Mitchell. “No longer can you build a platform and simply expect it to be ‘one-size-fits-all’. While it is still built against common standards so as to deliver the efficiencies associated with a Standard Operating Environment (SOE), it must be configured with the application front of mind – reference architectures are the key here”.

Next steps

Only then does the Linux environment truly deliver value through increased productivity at the application level. Operating that environment against best practice systems management principles is, of course, the ideal; but it’s infrequently applied.“In our experience at LinuxIT, the nuances of Open Source and lack of familiarity with the enterprise systems tools for Linux have meant very few organisations operate Linux against best practice systems management”, says Mitchell. “But that’s all changing as CIOs recognise the strategic position Linux now occupies in their datacentres”.

Dealing with change

So now let’s assume Linux has been adopted with an understanding of the value it delivers and has been designed and built against best practice by internal or external Linux consultants. It has been handed over to the operations team to support and manage it... when suddenly, over the wall from the development department comes a software release that has to be deployed by last week.

The operations team picks it up and begins preparing it for deployment. If they have the skills in the team, this probably means hacking the deployment scripts provided by the developers and creating their own scripts, and probably editing configuration files to reflect the Linux production environment. At some point, the developers are called in to troubleshoot - and the finger pointing begins. What should have been an eventless deployment becomes a fire fighting exercise to get the production environment into a usable state.

Enter DevOps!

This is where a DevOps approach delivers real value to the business. The key to DevOps is to unify the development and operations processes by treating them as one end-to-end process.

This requires cultural change from a less siloed approach to one where development and operations teams truly collaborate, and the introduction of technologies that unify the tooling across the departments.

LinuxIT’s DevOps service

LinuxIT’s DevOps service is designed to do both. “For organisations, it’s about Linux systems development as much as systems management. To develop those systems in a way which continues to be optimal for fast changing applications, the operations team must be very close to the developers”, says Mitchell.

“With the LinuxIT DevOps team employed to manage and develop the Linux systems, the structural barriers between development and operations come down”, says Mitchell. “We simply cannot do our job effectively without also working closely with the developers - so we start to build those bridges. Often, being an outsider makes that process simpler as the internal politics don’t affect us in the same way.”

The LinuxIT toolkit

Then there’s the toolkit. LinuxIT offers a wealth of tools that can be used to underpin best practice Linux configuration management.

“Configuration management is a core component of our best practice Linux Systems Management approach and so we have established both the vendor partnerships and competencies to use tools such as Puppet”, says Mitchell. “In our DevOps service these tools are centre-stage. They are incredibly powerful, enterprise ready tools - but at the same time, they are cost effective because they’re Open Source. It’s tools like Puppet that allow us to apply forward thinking methodologies like DevOps to Linux and make it the enterprise platform it has become today”.

The future

By applying the DevOps approach to best practice Linux strategy, service management, architectures and systems management, organisations can achieve agile yet stable platforms that deliver superior organisational performance and help them to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

Just for fun, why not download our eGuide 'Ridiculous IT Requests - The Early Years' now!

How Does Austerity Affect Your IT and Linux Capabilities? [POLL]

Simon Mitchell — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT

POLL: How Does Austerity Affect Your IT and Linux Capabilities?

Houses Built on Sand: The Importance of a Reliable Linux Server Estate [SLIDESHARE]

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 13:00:00 GMT

Best practice Linux architectures and systems management are crucial to ensure that failure rates are kept to a minimum and you benefit fully from the advantages associated with Linux. Without them, your organisation’s performance could deteriorate; the costs of poor uptime could cost you existing or new business and perhaps even lead to a damaged brand reputation.

Find out more in this SlideShare...

Why Your Organisation Will Benefit From Best Practice Linux Architectures and Systems Management

The common issues:

Linux often entered into the organisation via the backdoor many years ago and has proliferated organically, rather than against a strategy or plan
It has not, therefore, been subject to the same rigorous standards or ROI assessments applied across the UNIX and Microsoft estates
This very often leads to multiple, undocumented builds of variable standards across numerous Linux distributions
Some of these distributions do not carry the enterprise assurances demanded of a mission critical environment
They are often not optimised for the application in terms of performance or security
Without a standardised architecture design and documentation, there is a great deal of risk through dependency on the engineer that built the servers
Servers are not built with operational efficiencies in mind, so scaling up capacity is complex, expensive and does not benefit from any economies of scale
It also often means they are not regularly updated with security patches and fixes which can introduce risk into the organisation
Because they have not been built against best practice, there is often no facility to detect, isolate and correct problems before they impact on the business
Very often, security has not been considered to the extent that it should have been when building these servers, particularly in terms of identity management, activity monitoring and virus/malware management
Ultimately, poor practice around Linux causes an increase in failure rates, security risk and costs while decreasing productivity, operational efficiencies and the value your organisation is able to deliver
Customers may not return if they’ve suffered from a bad experience - for example, on an e-commerce or m-commerce website, leading to lost sales opportunities

Invest in best practice Linux

The solution:

Invest strategically in best practice Linux consulting and Linux support and managed services for increased organisational performance
Formulate your Linux strategy. Ask yourself why you are using Linux as opposed to UNIX or Microsoft?
Once you understand the reasons, ensure the Linux architecture and systems management are designed to deliver the anticipated advantages
Design the Linux Application Ready Infrastructure (ARI) to optimise for the specific application using reference architectures from a Linux specialist
Create a Standard Linux Operating Environment (SOE) that is fully aligned with your requirements as an effective and managed process and fully integrated with your IT environment and IT processes
This will dramatically reduce deployment time, simplify maintenance, increase stability and reduce costs
Implement an SOE Management Platform to provide a centralised way to deploy errata and configuration changes to standard build installations and to integrate with your change management, incident management and other IT tools and processes
Manage your systems in such a way that you are aware of problems before your customers are - implement fault management and performance management systems that are designed specifically to provide a greater return on investment in your Linux estate
Secure your Linux infrastructure with best practice Linux security management that addresses access controls, user activity, data privacy, viruses and malware and denial of service attacks
Adopt best practice Linux as the foundation for value recognition further up the stack
Determine whether it is cost effective to maintain a deep Linux competency capable of maintaining your Linux systems in line with fast evolving best practices. LinuxIT deploys and maintains thousands of Linux servers against best-practice which means you benefit from our knowledge and economies of scale.
Perhaps your internal competency would provide a greater value by focusing on the IT that is unique to your organisation? Only they understand the nuances of your business and, given the opportunity to express their creativity beyond the mundanities of the operating system, they will drive innovation and value in your business.
Your Linux systems can be commoditised and built against best practice standards by outsourcing this service to a specialist Linux service provider with which you will benefit from significant economies of scale, improved productivity and reduced risk
Speak to LinuxIT today about how best practice Linux can benefit your organisation

Download our eGuide Key questions CEOs should ask their CIO to find out more.

Even More Ridiculous IT Service Desk Requests [INFOGRAPHIC]

Simon Mitchell — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT

We bring you more in our series ‘101 Most Ridiculous IT Service Requests’.

Due to popular demand – sincerest thanks, both of you – LinuxIT, the leading name in Open Source for enterprise, returns with even more ridiculous IT service desk requests.

Further proof, if further proof was needed, that even when technology comes a knocking, for some people the lights may be on, but nobody's home.

22. User: "My mouse has stopped working."

Helpdesk: "Is it an optical or ball mouse?"

User: "Sorry?"

Helpdesk: "Does it have a ball or light?"

User: "There's a light on top."

Helpdesk: "On top?"

User: "Yes. It was underneath before, but I like it better on top."

Helpdesk: "Right. Could you turn it around so the light's pointing down at the desk?"

User: "Okay... Oh! Great! It works!"

23. User: "I've just had my line enabled for broadband, but there is no difference in it!"

Helpdesk: "Sorry to hear that. What speed are you getting?"

User: "Speed? What do you mean?"

Helpdesk: "The download speed on your computer?"

User: "I don't own a computer, nor have I any interest in owning one. What's that got to do with my broadband?"

Helpdesk: "Broadband is high-speed internet. What did you think it was for?"

User: "I thought it improved the quality of voice calls... I did wonder why you'd sent me this black box and all these wires."

24. User: "Is there a spray I can get for my computer?"

Helpdesk: "Excuse me?"

User: "A spray? One I can squirt the inside of my computer with."

Helpdesk: "Do you mean compressed air?"

User: "Does that kill the viruses?"

Helpdesk: "... You mean like a disinfectant? For computer viruses?"

User: "Yes! That would do the trick."

Helpdesk: "I'm sorry, sir. There's nothing like that available. Viruses are just a name we give to malicious software. We use 'virus' because it explains how the software behaves."

User: "Oh... so no spray then?"

Helpdesk: "No."

25. User: "I password protected an important document and now I can't remember the password."

Helpdesk: "Okay. We have a program that can get passwords from Word documents. Can you email it to me?"

User: "No, it's very sensitive. That's why it was password protected. I don't even keep the file on the server. I keep it secure on a memory stick."

Helpdesk: "It would be safer if you kept it on the server. At least on the server it would be backed up each night."

User: "That's exactly what I don't want to happen. For legal reasons, I can't have any copies of this file. I need you to come down here and get the password for me."

Helpdesk: "I'm in a different office to you, so I'll have to send someone to help you out."

User: "Have them call ahead so I can notify security."

Helpdesk: "Security? That won't be necessary. We've all signed non-disclosure agreements."

User: "It will be necessary! This is a very sensitive document and I can't have anybody near it without security."

Helpdesk: "Okay. I'll make sure they call ahead and bring the software so they can retrieve the password you forgot."

User: "I didn't forget it!"

Helpdesk: "Sorry?"

User: "I'd no need to remember it."

Helpdesk: "What do you mean?"

User: "The password was written on a post-it note attached to the memory stick and must've fallen off. It's somewhere on my desk, but there's so many papers here I can't find it!"

26. Helpdesk: "Okay, you should now see a small dialog box on your desktop."

User: "I don't see any box on my desktop."

Helpdesk: "Are you sure? It'll be a small window with an 'OK' button in the middle."

User: "How can a window be in my desktop?"

Helpdesk: "Sorry... what are you looking at?"

User: "My desktop, like you said. There's no box on it, just the computer. I do have a small window at the top of my wall though, but I don't see anything that says 'OK'."

Ouch.

In our capacity as Linux Systems Management specialists, LinuxIT is always on hand to provide a solution to the most demanding of service requests from our customers. We build, migrate and maintain cost-effective and flexible systems, making us the leading specialists in Open Source IT solutions.

To find out more about the Open Source success story that is Linux, download From Classroom to Boardroom – the Linux journey.

Avoid the Worst: Disaster Recovery Options in Linux

Simon Mitchell — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 10:00:00 GMT

This article examines the disaster recovery options that are available in Linux and why it’s your key insurance policy for business continuity.

Every organisation needs a disaster recovery plan and some strategies in place to ensure that their IT keeps running during a period of downtime. This could be caused by a power outage, fire or flood. Not to have one could be costly in many ways – not just financially, but also in terms of lost productivity and time.

Mark Reynolds, Director of Technology at System's Management specialist LinuxIT, describes having a ‘DR’ plan and strategy as follows: “A disaster recovery strategy is a bit like home insurance; you hope that you’d never have to use it, but when the out of control lorry veers off the road outside your house and ends up in your living room, you’re glad to have it.” Systems reliability management is therefore another crucial topic as prevention is better than cure.

Key challenges: IT disaster recovery plan

IT analyst firm Gartner’s report, ‘Improve your IT disaster recovery plan, and your ability to recover from disaster’, says that there are two key challenges:

“Minor discrepancies, omissions and oversights in an organisation’s disaster recovery plan can have a major impact on the time required to recover from a disaster and the associated business impact”;
“While most organisations claim to have some form of IT disaster recovery plan in place, there are wide-ranging differences in quality, scope and detail level from one plan to another”.

Don’t be out of business

Regarding the costs of not having a disaster recovery plan in place, Reynolds says: “If you don’t have home insurance and your house is demolished, you’ll probably be homeless.” In business terms, this means that at worst your company or organisation will go out of business either permanently or temporarily. So it’s best to avoid cutting corners.

Reynolds recommends carrying out a business risk assessment, which LinuxIT’s IT professional services team can help your organisation complete. It involves assessing the infrastructure to consider which business systems are the most critical. A risk weighting is then assigned to each to assess how each kind of potential disaster could have an impact on the business if a loss were to occur. This includes making sure that any business critical data is assessed and captured.

Develop a ‘DR’ plan:

In Gartner’s aforementioned report, the following process is used:

Define the scope of the plan;
Identify key terminology;
Make the plan easy to use;
Reference roles, not individuals’ names;
Address ongoing recovery and failback, as well as failover;
Consider the types of disaster to plan for.

Top three things to avoid

Reynolds says there are three top things to avoid when planning an organisation’s disaster recovery plan:

Leaving out some of the systems and data that are business critical;
Seeing some systems as business critical when they’re not necessarily so;
Over-engineering a disaster recovery solution - it has to be scaled to the size of the business and the risks involved.

Which Linux systems are available?

Disaster recovery is agnostic; it doesn’t matter which operating system is used. But Reynolds says that clustering, back up, Cloud, hosting and other factors can help to make Linux systems more resilient.

How can LinuxIT help?

LinuxIT’s Linux professional services can help your organisation carry out a risk assessment audit. This will help you to find your Single Points of Failure and make it easier to understand your organisation’s risk appetite.

It’s also possible to outsource disaster recovery, but it will require some due diligence to ensure that your organisation’s prized assets, including its data, are safe. Outsourcing is often less expensive than investing in your own expensive hosting environment. So it’s worth considering, so long as due diligence is at the front of your mind.

To learn more about how the right consultancy can transform your IT efficiency, please download our eGuide ‘Sleep soundly: outsource your operations’.

What Do You Think is the Most Important Consideration when Managing Legacy Systems? [POLL]

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 09:00:00 GMT

POLL: What Do You Think is the Most Important Consideration when Managing Legacy Systems?

Five More Common Myths Around Open Source Adoption [SLIDESHARE]

Simon Mitchell — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:00:00 GMT

In a follow up to our blog ‘Five Common Myths About Open Source’, we analyse five further misconceptions which endure around Open Source software.

There are numerous myths out there about Open Source software which continue to spread despite lack of evidence. Here, we debunk five more of the most common:

Five more common myths around Open Source adoption

1. There is no commercial support out there for Open Source software.

Several leading IT consultancies offer a range of support options for Open Source systems and software (including the Systems Management specialist LinuxIT, we hasten to add!)

2. It's all about GNU/Linux vs MS Windows as another challenge to Microsoft.

The bottom line in the world of IT is that you want something that just works - and keeps on working without any fuss or hassle. This is what Open Source software is all about. It's the hard working engine that keeps you on the go - either in your office or on mobile devices.

More recently, distributions of GNU/Linux such as Ubuntu Linux and Linux Mint 12 have made GNU/Linux much more popular on the desktop. With its endless choice of configurable desktops, GNU/Linux has made itself popular with both informed and less educated computer users alike. Open Source doesn’t just appeal to anti-commercial types; it’s popular with anyone who wants the best software.

3. Open Source software is of a lower quality than proprietary software.

One of the outstanding features of Open Source software is that it is inherently reliable; because many hands and eyes have worked on the code.

You can do anything with Open Source office suites that you can do with proprietary office suites. Don't believe us? Try using Libre Office and discover how much easier it makes your life.

We’re sure you’ve heard that the Higgs boson particle could not have been discovered without GNU/Linux; it's used at both CERN and Fermilab. If it’s good enough for the finest scientists in the world...

4. There is no money to be made on Open Source software.

Strange how large organisations like IBM and Hewlett-Packard are investing so heavily in it, then...

5. Open Source is trying to catch up with Microsoft and the commercial world.

Actually, it's the other way around. The Open Source web server is way ahead of current proprietary offerings. The internet could not have come into being if it had relied upon proprietary software licences. On the desktop, many GNU/Linux users have noticed that MS Windows 7 and 8 looks mysteriously like their own desktop...

Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical Ltd, has done a lot towards improving the penetration of Open Source into the commercial market; in fact, Dell now sells laptops with Ubuntu Linux preloaded. Using Ubuntu Linux, you can install a Samba server and share your company’s documents across large or small networks. You can also run virtualization applications on such a server, allowing you to run and use any operating system or application over the network.

At a recent Gartner Open Source event in Barcelona, one of the speakers memorably said: “If you haven't got Open Source in your business you haven't got a business”. The time is ripe for your business to transfer to Open Source systems and software - what are you waiting for?

To learn more about Linux, download our free eGuide ‘From Classroom to Boardroom: the Linux journey’ now!

The Get Well Plan: How to Integrate Legacy Systems with Open Source Software [FLIPBOOK]

Simon Mitchell — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:00:00 GMT

Legislation and regulatory burdens are increasing on some industries; how can you manage legacy systems while integrating them with new technology?

Sectors like financial services are facing an increasing burden to keep, maintain and manage legacy data. When new technology is introduced to businesses, organisations have to find a way to bridge the divide between the new and the old systems and applications to ensure that regulatory compliance is followed and to allow easy access to the data.

This data could include a company’s historical or current customers, or a public sector organisation’s citizen records. For legal and regulatory reasons, other kinds of operational data may need to be kept too. So it’s important to have a legacy systems and applications strategy in place. Hiring an IT professional services firm can help organisations like yours to maintain compliance.

Integrating legacy systems

“It’s important to integrate legacy systems because they are deeply embedded in organisations running old hardware and software that needs to be looked after”, says Mark Reynolds, Director of Technology at Linux Systems Management specialist, LinuxIT.

He adds that many organisations have applications running on UNIX, which can be easily migrated to Linux without having to make too many changes to them.

Legacy systems best practice

Mark Reynolds offers his top five tips for best practice management of legacy systemopens:

It should be documented;
It should be backed up in more than one location;
It should be secure, as legacy systems may contain sensitive personal and operational data;
It should be monitored to make sure that it doesn’t go down;
Don’t ignore or forget about legacy systems just because they work.

Ask for an assessment

An assessment helps with interoperability management and provides a basis for compliance with industry-specific legislation and regulation. It examines an organisation’s business strategy, IT strategy, application architecture, infrastructure, service management, security, compliance and regulatory obligations and its financial and commercial components.

Understanding Systems Management Best Practice

Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security (FCAPS) defines the ISO Telecommunications Management Network model and framework for network management. “Successful systems management involves developing policies and procedures to address each of these areas, and the use of suitable tools to ensure efficient execution and management”, says the LinuxIT System Management whitepaper.

Wikipedia describes the purpose of systems management in the following way: “The comprehensive management of an organisation's information technology (IT) infrastructure is a fundamental requirement. Employees and customers rely on IT services where availability and performance are mandated, and problems can be quickly identified and resolved. Mean time to repair (MTTR) must be as short as possible to avoid system downtimes where a loss of revenue or lives is possible.”

“Successful systems management involves developing the policies and procedures to address each of these areas, and the use of suitable tools to ensure efficient execution and management”, says LinuxIT.

Getting well, staying well

By undergoing an assessment - just like going to the doctor for a check-up – it’s possible to forestall any issues that may cause downtime, poor integration and other issues that might adversely impact your organisation’s operations. By working with a company like LinuxIT these issues can be avoided and your organisation can remain healthy and competitive in a way that ensures that legacy systems don’t become a hindrance.

To learn more about Linux, download our eGuide ‘From Classroom to Boardroom – the Linux journey’.

How Can I Ensure My Data is Safe?

David Marshall — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 09:00:00 GMT

This article considers why it’s important to keep your data secure and suggests asking Cloud providers certain qualifying questions to ensure your data is kept safe.

Data is the lifeblood of many of today’s public and private organisations, so it’s important to protect data assets from any form of internal and external attack. Open Source Solutions (OSS) security is but one aspect of the enormous challenge of making sure that data remains safe from unauthorised access, viruses and any denial of service.

Strict security and data management policies

Linux consultancy LinuxIT says organisations need to ensure that their OSS environments conform to strict security and data management policies. These policies shouldn’t be considered as special in comparison to any other kinds of software. You should view Open Source in the same way you would any other kinds of software and data.

LinuxIT’s Mike Curtis, Executive Director - Service Delivery, emphasises that this is because it’s crucial to avoid relying on the Open Source Solutions to be secure. Tight security is needed for the whole environment. He adds: “There is no inherent risk with OSS. It’s the application of policies and design as with all software, including the patch environment which should be the same as with proprietary software.”

Building an infrastructure and operating environment

Curtis says that the important thing to do is to build and manage an Application Ready Infrastructure (ARI) and a standard operating environment. This will create a standardised platform to give you one way of undertaking certain tasks. This will make the system more efficient, enabling better control and cost reduction management.

But what if the data is hosted in a Cloud environment?

Outsourced data remains the responsibility of the organisation that owns it, and so it is its own responsibility to ensure that the Cloud provider is made aware of the sensitivity of the data and how important it is. To a degree, this relationship is managed with the organisation as a customer and the Cloud provider agreeing a Service Level Agreement.

This should clearly state:

The data class and security management level required
What the Cloud provider or the IT managed service provider is delivering against and how it is defined as being important
That due diligence is imperative with the growing importance of ‘consumption Cloud” usage.

Before signing up to a Cloud or IT managed service provider, Curtis recommends that organisations’ IT directors should ask the following questions:

What level of accreditation do you have? It’s important to verify whether they have the skills, knowledge and expertise to keep data securely and a track record to prove it.
What types of data does the Cloud provider or IT managed service provider have experience of working with, and can it show any evidence of this to ensure the data is being stored more securely than it was previously in-house or with another outsourcing firm?
Are they willing to show their customers their structure: e.g. the operating environment, such as a data centre?
What kinds of security policies and Service Level Agreements are in place?
Do they use partners/suppliers and what accreditations do they have?

How can LinuxIT help?

LinuxIT can help your organisation by building an ARI and through our Business Process Outsourcing offering, which is cross-vendor. It doesn’t matter whether your data is hosted in an in-house date centre or in a Cloud environment. With the assistance of LinuxIT’s professional services you can put in place the right contract and remove any assumptions from the process.

To learn more about how the right consultancy can transform your IT efficiency, please download our eGuide ‘Sleep soundly: outsource your operations’.

What Do You Think is the Most Important Question to Ask Your Cloud Provider? [POLL]

Simon Mitchell — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:00:00 GMT

POLL: What Do You Think is the Most Important Question to Ask Your Cloud Provider?

Five Tips for Using Open Source Monitoring Tools [INFOGRAPHIC]

Simon Mitchell — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 09:00:00 GMT

LinuxIT examines how your organisation can save money on Linux monitoring costs, and offers five tips for using Open Source monitoring tools.

Every IT system needs monitoring, and Open Source software and systems are no different.

Organisations can save money by adopting Open Source, making licensing costs per node or monitored posts a thing of the past.

Both in the public and private sector, monitoring helps IT teams to look out for every hardware, operating system and software issue.

IT directors should try to ensure that downtime is limited or made near to non-existent.

As always, feel free to share and embed this on your own blog!

Open Source issues

Gartner says that “Open Source monitoring solutions can prove more difficult to measure and overcome than the exposed costs in commercial software.”

The analyst firm says much depends on the maturity and stability of Open Source monitoring software...

Open Source monitoring is a viable alternative. Another option is to use it to complement enterprise monitoring solutions.

One of the key problems associated with community Open Source monitoring software is that it doesn’t have any vendor accountability.

Gartner adds that Open Source can also suffer from volatility.

“Multiple codebases based on other tools cause splintered features and a diffused development focus, and increase overall maintenance risk.”

Gartner

Open Source benefits

Gartner says there are some clear benefits too – particularly with regard to commercial Open Source monitoring solutions:

“Commercial Open Source software is a viable alternative or complement to enterprise monitoring solutions”
“Perpetual, yearly or even monthly licensing options provide added cost-savings and flexibility for customers, enabling efficient hosting operations by managed service providers and enterprises”
“Overall solutions costs are lower than non-Open Source solutions for commercial Open Source solutions.

“Most tools include plug-ins and are extendable to monitor applications.”

Mark Reynolds, Director of Technology, LinuxIT.

The purpose of the plug-ins is to stimulate users and to verify that everything is working correctly.

Open Source monitoring dos and don’ts

To ensure that it all works like clockwork, Mark Reynolds proffers his top five dos and don’ts of Open Source software and systems monitoring software:

Engage with a Linux system management specialist like LinuxIT ;
Ensure that your staff have the right skills in-house if you are going to do any monitoring within your own organisations;
Tune your checks to avoid false positives;
Update your team’s knowledge about the plug-ins out there because they are constantly changing;
Avoiding writing your own plug-ins; use what is already out there.

Recommended monitoring tools

Reynolds recommends Nagios.

There is also: OpsView, VMware’s vFabric Hyperic, GroundWork, Merethis Centreon, Zabbix, Zenoss and Big Brother.

It’s important to undertake a proof of concept project.
Work out which monitoring tools best suit your IT administrators.
Know how to even save money in a LAMP environment.
With the help of LinuxIT’s Professional Service engineers you access the right advice, skills and knowledge.

To learn more about how the right consultancy can transform your IT efficiency, please download our eGuide ‘Sleep soundly: outsource your operations’.

How Open Source Drives Innovation [SLIDESHARE]

David Marshall — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 09:00:00 GMT

In this presentation we explain why Open Source enterprise software offers more grounds for innovation than proprietary software, and how it encourages an innovative culture in your organisation.

In this SlideShare you will find out:

How Open Source IT solutions are driving innovation.
What people need to know and understand about innovation.
How to create innovation within your organisation.
How LinuxIT can help you to drive innovation with Linux and Open Source IT solutions.

Why are Open Source systems and software driving innovation?

Open Source allows you to customise and try out software, building a computing environment to meet the specific requirements of your business;
The licensing model of proprietary software is often expensive and restrictive;
Open Source helps you to bring new products and services to market more rapidly than your competitors;
Innovation is inspired by the collaborative nature of Open Source IT solutions as they are developed by a community of Open Source specialists.

Key issue: People need to understand what is out there…

“Open Source accelerates innovation and product diversity, and people need to understand what demand is out there and how it is developed.”

Simon Mitchell, Executive Director at Linux Systems Management specialist, LinuxIT.

Four top tips for creating an innovative organisational culture

Encourage and reward staff and the organisation’s partners for sharing expertise and knowledge to enable the creation of new products and services, or to improve existing ones.
Use technologies that enable and facilitate collaboration.
Educate people with new skills or work with Open Source specialists to gain access to knowledge and expertise that can help your organisation and its staff to become more innovative.
Make sure that the innovation culture is inspired from the chief executive of the organisation downwards.

How can the right IT consultancy help you to create an innovation-focused strategy?

A managed services solutions consultancy can provide:

A function for organisations to capture the reliability of Open Source and extract value;
Assistance in identifying “robust and supportable software that provides longevity” - Simon Mitchell, Executive Director at Linux Systems Management specialist, LinuxIT;
An analysis of licensing costs, and advice about what you can do to identify IT projects that meet your organisation’s needs for the long-term;
Access to licensing business knowledge;
Help to achieve improvements in revenue and operational efficiency: innovation can also reside in business process management as well as products and services.

To learn more about Linux, download our eGuide ‘From Classroom to Boardroom – the Linux journey’.

The Death of Microsoft Exchange [FLIP BOOK]

Simon Mitchell — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:00:00 GMT

The growth of Cloud computing could mean the end of Microsoft Exchange and client-based computing. This article offers some Open Source alternatives for you to choose from.

Microsoft Exchange’s market share is being reduced by the influx of browser-based solutions like Zimbra, Zarafa and Google Apps. So will this lead to its death? LinuxIT’s Mike Curtis, Executive Director - Service Delivery, says that organisations are looking for solutions that deliver services in the post-PC era.

These services can be accessed anywhere, on any device and at any time of day. Curtis says: “They enable users to collaborate in innovative ways and Microsoft’s aging architecture is dependent on client-based solutions. So it is very expensive to maintain and support; it’s also not aligned with today’s users who include the mobile workforce, companies around the world and contract and temporary workers.”

Open Source IT solutions are therefore an alternative that every organisation should consider. They are fully customisable as the very nature of their architecture means that the code is available, allowing IT professionals to adapt it to suit their needs. Working with other Open Source solutions specialists and community members, you can develop the code, help to create new solutions or improve existing ones and eradicate any bugs.

Another advantage of deploying Open Source solutions is that they come with no vendor lock-in, and they have a high degree of “interoperability with other solutions as most Open Source software such as Zimbra supports Open Standards”, he explains.

Zimbra

Zimbra is recommended by LinuxIT as it offers a feature-rich browser-based experience that enables users to connect with their personal Clouds on any device and platform. It has a mailbox that helps them to manage their information, social media, email, voice, calendar, tasks, address book and connect to their enterprise applications. It provides users with offline and online access, including on smartphones like the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. It is also compatible with current desktop email and calendar clients.

Zarafa

Curtis says that Zarafa is a good alternative to Microsoft Exchange too as it is open, it has an MAPI architecture that makes it scalable and compatible with Outlook (as well as with BlackBerry and ActiveSync handheld devices that use Z-Push), and it is an enterprise-class solution. Zarafa offers its partners ticketed support too, and beyond it, organisations can use Gmail and other Google Apps.

But is it worthwhile building your own alternative to Microsoft Exchange with Linux and Open Source software? “It depends on what you are using it for; true mail (SMTP) systems would benefit from the design and build. But for things like groupware it would not be worthwhile as it works out more expensive to build”, says Curtis.

Open Source specialist LinuxIT can assist you with building an Application Ready Infrastructure (ARI) as well as helping your organisation with the ongoing Linux systems management. “With that dependable, secure and stable base, it would not be difficult to float a simple mail stack, and you can cut costs on mailbox numbers by saving 75% with a simple email solution”, he concludes. So the writing could soon be on the wall for Microsoft Exchange; but then again, even Microsoft is adapting to the Cloud era.