Reality Check On The Windowsless Office

The basic idea behind open-source software makes so much sense it's sometimes hard to imagine that destiny is not on the side of the Linux office.

With robust desktop productivity suites like OpenOffice readily available, it would seem a valid question to ask how much longer businesses will feed Microsoft's cash cow.

JOHN LONGWELL Can be reached via e-mail at jlongwel@cmp.com.

To that end, the CRN Test Center took a look at whether a Windowsless small-business office is ready for prime time. The conclusion: not quite yet, but possibly soon. There needs to be a little more driver support, a few more tools to automate maintenance and just a tad bit of improvement in the ability to migrate files and data from Microsoft environments. But it's getting closer all the time.

Or is it? Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivered an alternative vision at the Software 2007 conference this month, where he spent time on positioning Office 2007 as a development platform. Whether or not you accept Ballmer's claims that ISVs are climbing aboard the Microsoft Office platform in droves, the reality is that some are. And some is often all it takes.

As even small businesses demand more integrated applications, and as that integration extends to hosted applications, if just some of those applications require MS Office services to function properly, then an all open-source environment becomes a pipe dream.

After all, the reason the MS Office franchise has been so hard to crack is that being mostly compatible is rarely compatible enough. What this means for the Windowsless Linux office is that file-level compatibility, while important, will only open the door to a mixed environment as office applications become increasingly interconnected.

Another technology that has been a long time coming is 10 Gigabit Ethernet networking. Are your clients in the market to upgrade their backbones? As this month's CRNtech cover story indicates, the answer would seem to be yes. A network upgrade cycle that began two years ago, after a long hiatus, should continue this year in full tilt, according to Forrester Research. But 10G remains a little out of reach, and a big step up, for most SMBs.

Still, outside of the data center, solution providers are beginning to engage clients like college campuses with 10G installations, and some enterprises are "future proofing" portions of their networks with 10G as costs come down. And 10G is the fastest-growing segment of the networking market. That implies a transition is under way, and many solution providers are closely watching the uptake. Nearly a third are considering or planning to embrace 10G solutions in the next year, according to a CRN poll, while another quarter remain uncertain.

One thing seems certain, though. The need for ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth in a hyperconnected world is not likely to subside anytime soon, and 10G Ethernet finally appears to be on the way.

Have something on your mind? CRNtech welcomes letters from solution providers. Send comments to Executive Editor John Longwell at jlongwel@cmp.com.