Linux tops list for cloud deployments, foundation claims early adopters

The Linux Foundation released a survey today which claims that 70 percent of early adopters say they are using Linux as the primary platform for their cloud environment.

The same survey, unveiled at the foundation's annual end user summit in New Jersey, claims that only 18 percent of early Linux adopters are using Windows for their cloud deployments.

Additionally, about 80 percent of respondents say they are adding more Linux relative to other operating systems in  the next five years, and about 60 percent say they wil use Linux for more mission critical workloads over the next year.

About 87 perfcent see Linux as improving, 58 percent say CIOs see Linux as more strategic than it was in 2007, and technical superiority -- followed by cost and security, is cited as the primary reason for using Linux.

Of course, the survey generated only good news for Linux.

But seriously, the foundation's positioning of Linux as a viable alternative to Windows -- in every way -- is significant. Rather than focusing on Linux as the inevitable target OS for Unix migrations, the organization is now claiming significant migrations away from Windows.

The report maintains that "more people are reporting that their Linux deployments are migrations from Windows than  any other platform, including Unix migrations, " while 66 percent of users surveyed say Linux deployments are brand new deployments.

The conclusions are not nexpected, given the source. But it will be interesting to see the extent to which Microsoft's bottom line -- as well as the coffers of Red Hat, Novell and Canonical -- demonstrate the big shift in end user adoption.

What do you think?

Of course, the survey generated only good news for Linux.

Of course, the survey generated only good news for Linux:

What else?

Of course, the survey generated only good news for Linux: