Big data, cloud boost Linux adoption

February 25, 2014 Off By David

Grazed from ComputerWorld. Author: Rohan Pearce.

The rise of big data, cloud computing, mobility and social media — what IDC dubs the ‘third platform’ — represents a big opportunity for Linux and open source more broadly, analyst Sally Parker this morning told the SUSE Open Forum in Sydney. IDC describes the four technologies as representing the ‘third platform’ for IT. The ‘first platform’ was based on mainframes and terminals and the ‘second platform’ is IDC’s term for the era of PCs and classic client/server computing.

Parker, the research director for IDC’s Software and Services Research Groups, told the conference that the latest edition of the analyst firm’s quarterly server shipment tracker confirmed the continuing decline of Unix servers. The 3Q13 edition of the server tracker registered year-on-year revenue drops of 17.8 per cent and 22.5 per cent for mid-range and high-end servers, respectively…

However, IDC found growth of 3.5 per cent (in revenue terms) for volume servers. The core domains of Unix servers are mid-range and high-end, Parker said. "If you look at [the server market in] 2000 it was about a two-fifths, two-fifths, one-fifth split between x86, Unix servers and others. But today, 74 per cent of the market is x86," the analyst said…

Read more from the source @ http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/539096/big_data_cloud_boost_linux_adoption/

Subscribe to the CloudCow bi-monthly newsletter @ http://eepurl.com/smZeb