Linux Gains Legitimacy in the Enterprise

Look at the list of names among Datamation Product of the Year 2001 Award winners and you'll see companies long familiar to enterprise IT executives -- Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Dell, Palm, Compaq.

But it's the appearance on this year's list of one relative upstart -- Red Hat -- that underscores the major shift under way in the enterprise. Red Hat, maker of the most successful commercial version of open-source operating system software, unseated Microsoft to win in Datamation's Network and Systems Software category.

Datamation readers gave Red Hat Linux 7.2 more than twice as many votes than the runner-up in its category, Macromedia's JRun Server 3.1. Last year's winner in this category was Microsoft's Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

See the List of Winners

Click here for a handy list of winners in Datamation's 2001 Product of the Year voting. Visit CIN each day this week for more stories on the Product of the Year winners. Email Article Print Article Comment on this article Share Articles Digg del.icio.us Newsvine Facebook Google LinkedIn MySpace Reddit Slashdot StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Windows Live YahooBuzz FriendFeed

While Red Hat and Linux have been around since the mid-'90s, it has taken time for the open source system to gain widespread trust among enterprise IT pros. If the votes of Datamation readers -- primarily IT executives with experience and buying power -- is any indication, Linux software appears to have gained a permanent and growing role in the enterprise.

While Microsoft may have been dislodged from the top slot in the Network and Systems Software category, it earned strong voter support in the Business Intelligence Software category with its Microsoft SQL Server topping the list and its Business Objects' Application Foundation finishing second. Last year's winner in this group was Microsoft's Data Analyzer.

Methodology

A team of internet.com and EarthWeb.com editors worked with analysts and Datamation.com users in November 2001 to determine the nominees for products that had the greatest impact on the corporate enterprise last year. Together, they selected between five and seven nominees in each of the 11 technology categories. In December, INT Media Research, a division of INT Media Group, conducted an online poll among randomly selected Datamation.com and CIN.com users. The poll ran for two weeks, with filters in place to ensure that tallies did not include vendor votes or repeat submissions. The survey received a total of 400 responses. In addition to the survey, Datamation writers spoke with users and analysts to gauge what made certain products hot and others not.

The top security product in 2001 as voted by Datamation readers was Cisco System's PIX 501 firewall, which captured more than half the votes in this category. Finishing a distant second was the 3Com 3CR990-TX network interface card. Last year's winner in the security category was WatchGuard's LiveSecurity System.

IBM returns to the Datamation Product of the Year winner's circle in the Server Hardware category as its IBM z900 won a close race against Sun Microsystems' Sun Fire 15K and Sun Netra X1. Last year's winner was Compaq's ProLiant DL 380.

There was a photo finish in the Network Infrastructure category, with Brocade Communications Systems' Silkworm 3800 Enterprise Fabric Switch edging Extreme Networks' Summit 7i stackable switch by a mere two votes.

Other winners for 2001 include: in Enterprise Applications, the PeopleSoft 8 Supplier Relationship Management software; in E-commerce, NetIQ Corp.'s WebTrends Live 3.0; and in Client Systems, Desktop Product, the Dell Precision Workstation 530.

Over the next two weeks, Datamation will run stories about the winners and some of the other nominees in each of our 11 categories, starting today with the Network and Systems Software group.