In previous blog entries I’ve discussed the need for stability in a UNIX operating environment.  Let me be clear here, this in NO way means that to stabilize we have to stop all innovation.

The major UNIX operating systems have been around for a while.  HP-UX is coming up on its 25^th anniversary.  The first version of AIX came out in 1986.  SunOS was initially released in 1983 and followed by Solaris in 1992.  Those 20+ years have enabled each of these operating systems to include a large amount of the key functionality into their respective environments.  So after 20+ years are we done?  No.  To start, there some basic needs for continuing to enhance the operating system.  For example, operating systems need to be enhanced to support new processors or memory, new I/O technologies or even a new security standard. 

In addition to the basic requirements that make it necessary to continue to enhance the operating environment, I believe there are a couple of areas that users are looking for further innovation in.  These focal points for innovation are ease of use and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

1.      Making the operating environment easier to use. 

Ease of use starts from the initial ordering of the operating system to the deployment and finally ongoing support of the environment.  First, operating systems should be bundled with the functionality and the software that the organization requires.  By prepackaged functionality, you are ensuring that the solution matches the customer needs, simplifying the installation process, and thus reducing the overall risk of an upgrade.  Secondly, as much of the installation process should be as automated as possible and utilize self discovery mechanism to incorporate the new image of the operating system into the current environment.  With new package and automated deployment, you can make the UNIX environment significantly easier to set-up.  For example, with the new packaging offered in the HP-UX 11i V3 operating system we are able to reduce the number of installation steps to 9 and the number of reboots to 1.  Once the environment is up and running making the environment easy to manage becomes critical.  The more manual the process is the more complex my UNIX operating environment is.  So for starters, I require a set of tools to manage my environment such as the tools offered in the virtualization suite (VSE), in the management area with Systems Insight Manager (SIM) tools and with the disaster recovery capabilities in Serviceguard.  While these tools make it easier, the key to innovating is to make the different capabilities and integrated and automated as possible.  Such that the management tools interact with the virtualization tools which communicate with the disaster recovery capabilities and so forth.  By integrating and automating the time to manage is lessened and the risk of a problem due to an operator error is minimized.

2.      Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

In today’s environment IT departments are being asked to do more with less.  They have to justify all of their expenses.  So how a new environment impacts the bottom line is critical and anything that can be done to lower the total cost of ownership is seen as a plus.  There are a number of ways the total cost of ownership can be impacted.

A.    Increase the capabilities of the system (i.e. increase performance so I can get more out of my machine)

B.     Maximize the utilization of the system (this prevents having to buy additional systems while I have capacity sitting idle)

C.     Automate the system (redeploy operations staff to higher payback projects that are no longer required to maintain the environment)

D.    Reduce the amount of planned downtime

E.     Make it simpler/easier to deploy and manage

Most vendors will focus solely on the first item by raising performance.  Unfortunately, this overlooks the fact that labor costs are one of the biggest expenses in the data center.  As a result, vendors truly need to focus and innovate around automating as much as possible and that which isn’t automated needs to be made simple.  In addition, the focus needs to be on how I get the most out of the environment (maximum utilization and availability).

As I said at the beginning, I still believe there is the need for progress/innovation within UNIX operating systems.  Based on the state of the world today, the biggest thing the UNIX vendors can do for their customers is focus on making the systems as easy to use as possible and lowering the total cost of ownership.