Working with vendors is tough. You need their help, they want your money. Hopefully, whatever it is they help you install works and the price meets you both somewhere in the middle (as in your side of the middle, right?).

Sometimes this process is a headache, but sometimes a project can really surprise you—things just work and upper management is just peachy keen with how the whole thing looks on the balance sheet.

In that vein, SearchEnterpriseLinux.com wants to help its readers discover the best of the best in Linux products for the enterprise in our prestigious SearchEnterpriseLinux.com 2007 Products of the Year awards. We’ve been asking readers and vendors over at SearchEnterpriseLinux.com to nominate a favorite product they’ve used or to nominate their own new product, and now we’ve opened it up to the Intertubes here at the Enterprise Linux Log. Regardless of where you fall — vendor, user or general Linux guru –the deadline is drawing near!

Our editorial team and a select panel of industry experts and analysts are currently accepting submissions online until 5 p.m. PST on Nov. 9, 2007 in a range of categories, including: Server Linux platform product (either a distribution release or a new, integrated server Linux offering); Security applications/tools for Linux on the server; Virtualization product for Linux on the server; and Linux administration tools. You can access the 2007 POY submission page in the link above.

To qualify, new or significantly upgraded products must have been shipped after October 31, 2006, and before November 1, 2007. Submit your entry today and let us know what you think are the top data center products on the market!

Occasionally throughout the summer I’ve been chatting and emailing with Saugatuck Technology analyst Charlie Burns about mainframes, IBM and Linux. Many people have argued over the past year that the mainframe is dying out (again), but Burns and some very telling market trends go against that grain with a 180 degree turn: the mainframe is surging, and it’s all thanks to Linux.

I’ll have an article up a bit later this week (or early next) detailing just exactly what is going on in this space, but for now I thought I’d include one of the recent emails Charlie sent me that covers some of the basic cost advantages of the mainframe.

Architecturally-based advantages in the hardware, the operating systems, and in the virtualization functionality enable mainframes to manage multiple diverse workloads based on business objectives and deliver exceptional cost reductions. If we compare the costs of using mainframes to those of conventional servers as noted earlier, we find the following:

• Technical support and maintenance costs. By consolidating and centralizing the capabilities of dozens of servers into a single platform, use of a mainframe drastically reduces the redundancies and differences that are de rigueur in server farm environments. If we accept conventional industry wisdom that states a minimum of 70 percent of IT costs are labor - and that the majority of labor costs are training and support - it’s easy to see how mainframes can quickly free up IT budgets for more strategic investment such as new application development.
• Software licensing and maintenance costs. Since most operating, middleware, and application software is licensed to each server it is used on, a mainframe offers substantial software savings. In a mainframe, the computing capacity applied to software can scale dramatically. Literally, hundreds of virtualized server images can operate in a single mainframe under a single license, thus, avoiding additional license and maintenance fees. In addition, the IBM System z has the capability of running specialized processors for Linux and for some application workloads. These processors are priced substantially lower than the base processors. Thus, the System z delivers both hardware and software saving on a broad scale when compared to individual x86 server platforms.
• User and IT training costs. Training costs tend to be driven by the number and complexities of multiple applications and operating systems. By enabling the use of all leading operating systems and applications within single platform, mainframes drastically reduce the need for training.
• Utility and environmental costs. Mainframes require substantially smaller amounts of power, UPS capacity, cooling, and floor space when compared to the environmental requirements of an x86 server farm with equivalent processing capacity. The mainframe’s advantage is even more substantial when one considers the reduced amount of storage and inter-connection equipment compared to an x86 server farm.
• Security costs. Mainframes enable centralization of software and application interfaces. Centralization of software enables vastly improved security management by reducing the number and types of access points. Additionally, because of its heritage, security is architected into the mainframe and is uniquely robust. For example the IBM System z family of mainframes provides security against information flow between virtual machines. The System z was first certified in mid-2003 as Evaluation Assurance Level 5 (EAL 5) by meeting the Common Criteria standard ISO 15408. Comparatively, virtualization on x86 server platforms require security to be added and layered as part of the operating system, applications, databases, and so on – further increasing both the complexity and cost of security, while adding more points of vulnerability due to incompatibilities between security systems and other software.

An Elementary Roadmap
Saugatuck recommends that every company with more that 20 x86 servers should perform a thorough evaluation of existing workloads and servers with the following steps in mind:

1. x86 servers yielding the largest savings should be migrated to the mainframe first (e.g., those with unique infrastructure support requirements)
2. x86 servers with the lowest utilization should be migrated early
3. Assets with an upcoming compelling event (e.g., need for capacity upgrade, lease expiration, etc.) should be migrated before incurring the expense
4. x86 servers/workloads should be aggregated by user department to leverage strong buy-in
5. Oldest technology x86 servers should be migrated early
6. Focus on real estate by freeing up contiguous raised floor space or eliminating sites as early as possible