June 6, 2005
(Computerworld)
NEW ORLEANS -- Red Hat Inc. marked the occasion of its first user conference last week by officially launching its Directory Server, the latest addition to its open-source software arsenal.
But Red Hat faces an uphill climb as it tries to build on the success of its market-leading Linux distribution with additional offerings that move higher up the software stack, according to some analysts. They said the strategy puts the Raleigh, N.C.-based company into competition with better-established vendors that, in many cases, are its hardware and software partners.
That point was backed up by several users attending the inaugural Red Hat Summit here. Although the users said they like having open-source alternatives to the commercial products they now use, they added that it's unlikely that their companies will swap out their directory infrastructures or migrate to a full open-source stack supported by Red Hat.
"It would be a hard sell," said Sam Loyd, a senior database and systems administrator at McKee Foods Corp. The Collegedale, Tenn.-based maker of Little Debbie snacks and other products is testing Oracle Corp.'s database software on Linux servers. But Loyd said the company is unlikely to try Red Hat's directory software.
McKee undertook "a huge project" to deploy Microsoft Corp.'s Active Directory, Loyd said, adding that it would be difficult to get the IT staff "excited about something else."
Even though Linux use is "exploding" at The Scripps Research Institute as it invests in $2,000 Linux boxes instead of $15,000 Unix servers, the momentum probably won't carry over to Red Hat Directory Server, according to Michael Yavno, a systems administrator at the La Jolla, Calif.-based organization.
Yavno said he will make a pitch for the Red Hat software but doubts it will have much effect. The institute is rolling out Active Directory and Microsoft's Exchange Server software, and Yavno's own research shows it would be costly to back out of the project.
Seeking Stability
Other users, such as Mike Pearlman, a systems administrator for the city of Largo, Fla., said they're looking to Red Hat chiefly for a stable operating system. Pearlman said the city might consider Red Hat's Cluster Suite high-availability software but has no need for a full technology stack from a single vendor.
Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said his company is focusing on infrastructure software, an area where the vendor feels it provides additional value to its operating system users. Ongoing development efforts include virtualization and certificate management tools, he noted. However, Red Hat won't enter the "application" market with products such as databases or collaboration servers, Szulik said.
Gary Hein, an analyst at Burton Group in Midvale, Utah, said Red Hat obviously has a strong position in the operating system business. But, he added, it will be hard for the company to move "up the stack" and compete in software markets where vendors such as IBM and Oracle are much stronger.
For its plunge into the directory server market, Red Hat sought out an established product by acquiring software from America Online Inc.'s Netscape division last September. Szulik dismissed suggestions that Red Hat bought the Netscape technology because it needed a product that could compete with Linux rival Novell Inc.'s more widely used directory and identity management software. He said Red Hat had been tracking the directory server market as a potential business opportunity for four years.
Earl Perkins, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said Red Hat's chances of success will largely depend on how quickly it makes Directory Server available as a full-featured directory that's compatible with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol for its Linux environment -- something Novell hasn't done yet for its SUSE Linux environment, either.
"Novell hasn't taken eDirectory and made it an inherent part of SUSE Linux infrastructure services. You don't have a SUSE Linux directory. They're working on it," Perkins said. "If Novell responds properly to the challenge, I rate Red Hat's chance of success here as marginal."
Meanwhile, James Mularadelis, a senior Unix engineer at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in New York, said he harbors concerns that Red Hat's directory efforts "could waste a lot of resources" that might be better spent on its core operating system. "You don't want them to choke by biting off directory," he said.