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Future of Unix: What Users Say

July 7, 2003 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld -

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% Cost
32% Skills shortage
30% Applications
29% Server consolidation
24% Other OS offers tighter integration with my apps
13% Performance
11% Other
7% 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 4,999
8% at 500-999,
11% at 100-499
2% at 50-99 and
2% at less than 50 total employees.


The majority of the respondents reported working in these five industries:

80% work in non-computer-related industries
15% Manufacturing/ process industries (non-computer-related)
9% Health/ medical/ dental services
8% Finance/ banking/ accounting
7% Education
6% Government: state or local
6% 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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