Linux on the server sees reliability gains
Mainstream Linux distributions for servers have caught up substantially with Unix in terms of reliability over the past year, while Windows Server 2003 downtime has risen by nearly 25 percent, according to a Yankee Group survey.
The research firm's survey also noted a significant rise in enterprise interest in Ubuntu, previously known primarily as a desktop operating system.
The 2007-2008 Global Server Operating System Reliability Survey presents a substantially different picture compared to the results of the last such survey in 2006, in which Windows administrators reported less downtime than their counterparts who used Linux--a result that stirred up controversy at the time.
Over 2007 and 2008, Linux distributions from Red Hat and Novell increased reliability by an average of 75 percent, respondents to the survey said.
Downtime on Windows Server 2003, meanwhile, increased by 25 percent, to nearly nine hours per server, per year, the survey found.
"Windows Server 2003's decreased reliability is attributable to a series of security alerts that Microsoft issued in the summer and fall timeframe which caused network administrators to take their Windows Server 2003 machines offline for significantly longer periods of time to apply remedial patches," said Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio in a research note.
The 2006 survey found that both Linux and Windows Server 2003 were relatively crash-prone compared to Unix, but that the Linux systems surveyed have now closed the gap slightly.
Unix systems, which represented about 10 percent of the installed base covered by the survey, still achieved the highest reliability figures. IBM's AIX came highest, with enterprises reporting an average of 36 minutes of downtime per server over a 12-month period. HP-UX version 11.1 recorded 1.1 hours of downtime, while Sun Solaris users reported 1.4 hours per server, per year.