Does your company currently use Unix? 91% (266) of the respondents indicated that Unix is used at their company.
What versions of Unix are currently in use by your company? Sun Solaris 68%HP-UX 46%IBM AIX 44%Linux 12%SCO 4%IRIX 2%Tru64 2%DG-UX 1%Other Unix flavors/ versions 5% Base: 266 (this was a choose all that apply question)
How reliant is your company on Unix as an oparating system?
77% said that they were reliant on Unix, with 43% indicating that they were "Extremely reliant" and 34% indicating "Very reliant." 14% said that they were somewhat reliant, while those that indicated that they were not reliant equaled 9%, with 8% saying that they were "Not very reliant" and 1% "Not at all reliant." Net top two 77%Extremely reliant 43%Very reliant 34%Somewhat reliant 14%Not very reliant 8%Not at all reliant 1%Net bottom two 9% Base: 266
What drives your company's reliance on Unix? Applications 80%Reliability / scalability 57%Hardware vendor 33%Interoperability 26%Ease of app integration/ development 21%Other 5% Base: 263 (this was a choose all that apply question)
What are the three most important applications your company has running on Unix? Top 5 answers were: Accounting & financial applications 10%Oracle 8%Data warehouse/database 7%SAP 5%Web applications/hosting 5% Base: 243
In considering rival operating systems Linux and Windows Server, which do you feel is the bigger threat to Unix?
Which of the following best describes your Unix strategy? 56% : "Unix is an essential platform for us and will remain so indefinitely"24% : "Unix's role in our enterprise will shrink but it won't disappear"11% : "We expect to migrate away from Unix in the future"2% : "We have already implemented a plan to migrate away from Unix"6% : "None of the above"1% : "Other"
98 respondents indicated that their company was migrating away from Unix — why are you doing so? 46% Cost32% Skills shortage30% Applications29% Server consolidation24% Other OS offers tighter integration with my apps13% Performance11% Other7% Don't know Base: 98 (this was a choose all that apply question)
If your company is migrating away from Unix, what are you migrating to? Windows Server 61%(NET) Linux 45%Red Hat 42%SuSE 4%SCO 1%Other Linux 1%IBM non-Unix proprietary systems including z/ OS, OS400 8%Other 2%Don't know 12% Base: 98 (this was a choose all that apply question)
What's the timeframe for this migration?
Base: 98 (this was a choose all that apply question)
Over the next five years, how do you expect your company's demand for workers with Unix skills to change?
Base: 266
Which of the following best describes your vision of where Unix will be in five years? It will be an essential operating environment with continued widespread deployment 52%It will be important in some vertical market sectors, but it will not be considered an essential operating environment for most companies 38%It will generally be seen as a legacy system warranting a non-Unix migration path 6%None of the above 3%Other 1% Base: 266
Demographics Most of our respondents were IT managers (71%) Manager 52%Other IT manager 19%Supervisor 9%Director 7%Technical consultant 5%Systems integrator 2%CIO/ CTO/ CSO .8%Executive VP, Sr. VP .4%Vice president .4%Other 6%
The average number of employees employed in the entire organization, at all locations for respondent companies: 8, 820 with 26% working at companies whose head count is 20,000 or more,10% working at companies with head counts of 10,000-19,999,16% at 5,000- 9,999,25% at 1,000 to 4,9998% at 500-999,11% at 100-4992% at 50-99 and2% at less than 50 total employees.
The majority of the respondents reported working in these five industries: 80% work in non-computer-related industries15% Manufacturing/ process industries (non-computer-related)9% Health/ medical/ dental services8% Finance/ banking/ accounting7% Education6% Government: state or local6% Retailer/ wholesaler/ distributor (non-computer-related)
This study was conducted on behalf of Computerworld to learn about future plans for Unix among IT management/decision-makers.
Methodology
This study was conducted among Computerworld subscribers. A total of 10,000 names with e-mail addresses were randomly selected from the subscriber file using the following selection criteria:
IT management job title (CIO, CTO, VP, director, manager, supervisor, other IT manager, systems integrator, technical consultant)
Unix currently in use or planned for use at company
The study was administered via the Internet. Each sampled subscriber was sent an e-mail message inviting him to participate on June 10, 2003. Each sampled subscribers' unique address to access the questionnaire was included in his e-mail. Subscribers could either click on the address to gain access to the questionnaire or enter the address using a Web browser.
In order to qualify to complete the survey, respondents were required to have Unix currently in use at their companies.
The survey ended on June 18, 2003. A total of 291 completed surveys (266 qualified completes) were received, resulting in a 3% response rate.
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