The Midmarket Takes a Liking To Linux
In fact, Gartner Research predicts annual market sales for Linux will grow from $3.4 billion in 2003 to $7 billion by 2008. What's more, 10 percent of midmarket companies (those with 100 to 999 employees) cited Linux as a budgetary priority last year, according to VARBusiness research.
VARBusiness' exclusive State of Midmarket Spending survey supports a continued interest in OSes for 2003. Indeed, a majority of respondents (58 percent) rated server or network OSes as an important software technology in their IT-spending plans this year. And 44 percent of the midmarket IT executives who we polled expect desktop OSes to be an import-ant impetus to overall software spending.
Following Windows XP (66 percent) and 2000 Professional (63 percent), one in five midmarket executives (20 percent) we polled are currently investing in Linux. That's about double the amount of midmarket firms presently investing in either Windows 98 or Unix, and it's in line with the latest research from Jupitermedia, which finds 19 percent of small and midsize businesses today using Linux.
An even more interesting story lies at the server level of OS installations. Again, Windows products lead the way (NT and 2003), with approximately 71 percent and 23 percent of the surveyed midmarket executives investing, respectively. But Linux follows more closely, with 19 percent of midmarket companies installing Linux as their server OS.
Midmarket companies with the most employees appear to have the strongest affinity to Linux. According to our research, 26 percent of midmarket companies with 500 to 999 employees are installing Linux, compared with 21 percent of midmarket firms with 250 to 499 employees, and 18 percent of midmarket firms with 100 to 249 employees.
Of all verticals, the financial-services industry leads the way in its migration to Linux. In fact, interest in Linux within this sector has been on the rise for the past 12 months, largely attributable to the economic recession and maturation of Linux technology. Gartner reports that while Windows is the primary OS vendor for a majority (52 percent) of midtier banks, 43 percent of those surveyed plan to increase their use of Linux by 2004. In addition, Gartner anticipates that Linux adoption will increase to 40 percent of all financial-services providers in the next 24 months.
Bonnie Markowitz is editorial research director at VARBusiness, and Marilyn O'Hara is associate research director.