Unix in the Data-Center: How To Fail by Succeeding

What would your answer be if a selection team charged with hiring a new CIO to develop and implement an organization-wide "strategic systems architecture" were to ask you what management considerations most differentiate use of Windows from use of Linux? The right answer, I think, is that the more fully the organization implements the Unix Business Architecture (explained below), the smaller and more outward-facing the systems organization can be. Conversely, the more fully it implements Microsoft's client-server architecture, the larger and more inwardly focused the IT organization has to be. Explaining that answer, and the terms used, is what this column is about.

First, let's look at the terminology. I use the term "UBA," or Unix Business Architecture, to mean a Unix "pure-play" with centralized processing, desktop smart displays (like Sun's Sunray 1g), simplified networking and formal management support for people who use any Unix variant, including Mac OS X, Linux and BSD, at home.

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