Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux, and analyst firm RedMonk have released survey results that show usage patterns for the Ubuntu server product.
The survey, completed by nearly 7,000 respondents, shows that Ubuntu Server Edition is being used for most enterprise tasks, such as Web sites, files, databases, and mail servers, and is considered "mission-critical" by most respondents.
This is an interesting set of results, even if they are biased, considering that Ubuntu has largely been known for its desktop grace and focus on developing a better Linux user experience. But the enterprise is where all the money is, and this survey shows that Ubuntu is well-positioned to garner not only a large user base but also a large revenue base.
Which competitors should be concerned? Not so much Red Hat, considering that it, too, has a massive user base and enterprise presence, but definitely Novell, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems, all which have seen their data center market share change over the last few years.
If Ubuntu continues on this trajectory and maintains the "high quality that's free until you need help" business model, it will be extremely difficult for anyone to defend against the data center encroachment.
And some interesting survey result snippets on the hip topics:
Virtualization:
The two most popular open-source technologies, KVM and Xen, are increasingly prominent across all business sizes, which tells an interesting tale, in terms of enterprise usage. The quick rise of KVM is important, as it indicates that Ubuntu made the right choice to select it as our maintained technology. Ubuntu was the first distribution to make KVM the default fully maintained and supported technology, with (Ubuntu version) 8.04 LTS.The cloud:
Many users think the cloud is ready; they believe Ubuntu would be a good platform for it, but not that many have decided to deploy it yet. That's not surprising, given the maturity levels of the technologies available in the market currently. We believe in Ubuntu as a platform for innovation, and we will be looking at ways of delivering cloud (services) into businesses simply and securely on Ubuntu Server Edition, along with explaining how it can provide real value to companies as an infrastructure model.
In a new trend somewhere between direct customer contact and the public facing comments lies Twitter.
I'll start with the obvious joke that 140 characters, or roughly 2 sentences is typically the value that you get from analysts. However, my experience over the last year or so is that the analysts that I've worked with (both paid and unpaid) have been extremely helpful.
The Top 10 Analyst Twitter-ers via Technobabble:
1 Forrester - Jeremiah Owyang
2 Redmonk - James Governor
3 Message - Stowe Boyd
4 Hurwitz & Assoc. - Robin Bloor
5 Greenmonk - Tom Raftery
6 Redmonk - Steve O'Grady
7 Redmonk - Michael Cote
8 Forrester - Event Handle
9 Jupiter Research - Michael Gartenberg
10 The451 - Raven Zachary
Twitter largely reminds me of when people started to register their own names for domains, turning the Internet into a giant customized license plate. It's somewhere between self-expression and mental onanism.
I use it to track several news sites but following other "people" often makes me feel weird. Most of the content seems like therapy for those who don't spend enough time with others. From a technology perspective, I find it really interesting and useful to an extent. But is this online stream of consciousness a marketing tool?
There are some great users like the guys from RedMonk (monkchips, cote, sogrady), who have gotten so used to Twittering everything that it's like having them in the room. And their content is interesting and funny. It's a great branding tool for them and theoretically should be for others as well.
Personally, I use Twitter (daveofdoom) to entertain my other idiot friends, and I forced our marketing team (mulejockey) to do it too as an experiment. It's definitely not a replacement for a blog even if you can communicate anything with just 140 characters.
Over on Mashable, Andy Beal outlines "5 Twitter Tactics for Building a Stellar Brand":
1. Start conversations with notable peers
2. Share valuable industry news
3. Build your blog audience
4. Stay connected at conferences and trade shows
5. Monitor your Twitter reputation
Conversation or crap? You decide.
I didn't pay much attention to VirtualBox when Sun Microsystems first acquired Innotek, but RedMonk's Michael Coté just posted an interview and demo of the software, and it's very cool.
In a few clicks, you can see VirtualBox create a Vista instance and run it on the Mac. There are many options for virtualization at this point, but I would expect Sun to make this its weapon of choice (versus Xen), since it owns it and can tweak it for Solaris.
On the Mac, I'm not sure it's any better than Parallels, but it is open-source, which should be very appealing for many users.
VirtualBox is a free download available under the General Public License, or GPL.
I think it's a great thing to see the big analyst firms recognize open source products and companies as key players in today's software world. The fact that Gartner has named MuleSource as a "Cool Vendor in SOA Governance" obviously speaks to the quality of the software, but also to the fact that the analysts who have typically been less open source focused (versus say, Red Monk) are realizing the massive impact that we are having on the market.
According to Gartner, "The cost, complexity and potential vendor lock-in of closed-source technology from infrastructure platform vendors have pushed the desire for open-source technologies past operating systems, application servers and enterprise service buses."
If you read into the Gartner quote, they are now also setting themselves up to be able to talk about open source applications and other infrastructure components. The times sure are changing.
Mule Galaxy is available for download and is licensed under the GPL v2.
Disclosure: I work for MuleSource.
I had planned to interview Cote this afternoon after he moderated a few panels at MuleCon but somehow he got lost in the crowd. So, I've decided to make it all up and entertain myself.
Q: Being that you do most of you work in the Bay Area, why do you live in Austin?
A: I had flown blimps for a number of years and I was based down in Sunnyvale at Moffett Field. I had been training for the next manned shuttle launch to the moon but then Iceland pulled the funding that they had allotted to the program. (Note: while not a native Icelander, Cote spent his early years on a fishing boat in the Atlantic.)
After the moon trip got cancelled I got a gig flying the blimp for the University of Texas football team and ended up in Austin. As all of our RedMonk work is virtual and collaborative and I fly a blimp I can get anywhere slowly but efficiently.
Q: Do you own any teeth that are not your own?
A: I own one of Ben Franklin's molars that I took as payment for a blimp flight from Dallas to Orlando. The client was a crazed oil-baron who looked like the Texan on the Simpsons. His grandfather won the tooth in a bet and passed it on from father to son to grandson. I wear it around my neck at all times in order to keep the peace between the Tories and Whigs.
Q: What's with the beard?
A: A vast majority of great men have always rocked beards. It's a sign of virility and dynamism. If you are on the town you'll always see the bearded guys with the lovely ladies. For that matter, bearded ladies always have the hunky guys.
Q: If you had to choose a favorite pastry, what would it be?
A: First, let me state that its hard to beat a muffin-top. However, my weapon of choice would be a fresh-baked croissant with butter and jam. Excessive? Maybe, but we RedMonk guys live life on the edge.
For this week's Open Season we had the always enjoyable and fully bearded Michael Cote from Red Monk joining the illustrious team of myself, Matt Asay and Ashlee Vance.
This time we actually focused and talked about things that are important, including why you still can't trust Microsoft, why Google is inevitably evil and why the Sarah Lacy SXSW meltdown didn't seem that bad when watched online.
Rock on.
Open Season: Episode 13
I am in the middle of a week of meetings and presentations and I am getting borked by WebEx no matter what browser I use. My machine at home is running Tiger and WebEx seems to work OK but I am getting killed here with Leopard. Anybody seen this problem?
On the positive side, Parallels is making it happen for me despite the fact that I have to reboot after a few hours. Stephen O'Grady at Red Monk told me that Connect rules and even runs on Linux but I haven't tried it yet.
Off to install Parallels updates...
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