MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-09-28 |
| FROM | From: "Ruben I Safir - Secretary NYLXS"
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Desktop Stratergies
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CIO Interviews
Novell CIO: Think About Easy Targets for Linux Migration
By Peter Williams
September 27, 2004 7:30PM
"CIOs in general are pretty risk-averse people. I certainly am. This is not
going to go away. But I believe we'll reach a point where Windows and Linux
desktops co-exist. It'll be a viable alternative not just to consumers but in
all enterprises to make the decision between Linux and Windows," said Anderson
in her interview with vnunet.com.
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Project Penguin: Novell CIO Debra Anderson Talks to Vnunet.com
Novell chief information officer (CIO) Debra Anderson was given the task of
migrating all of the company's 6,000 staff from Microsoft Windows to Novell
Linux on the desktop. In an exclusive interview with vnunet.com she details
the project and the lessons it provided.
How did you go about planning the migration at the start?
Planning is most critical. We created a site called the "Open Zone," a
one-stop shop for anything related to our "Open Desktop Initiative," our
project name.
>From that one site, staff can get training, downloads, communications [on]
what we're doing, where we're at in the project. It's our second most
frequently visited internal site.
I sat one-to-one with each of the executive team, communicated what we wanted
to accomplish in what timeframe, then lined them up with a call to action
which they then passed to their staff.
Then each of them nominated an advocate as our key contact in their
organisations, and we created this big, virtual team.
So, I'd say our second most critical thing was communication, rallying the
leadership team on what we wanted to accomplish. We really had to lay out how
to do this.
I created a couple of key targets for the year. One was to move 90 percent of
Novell to OpenOffice by 31 July. The second was 50 percent of Novell to
Novell's Linux desktop by 31 October.
Novell's Linux desktop is in a state of flux, so that presents additional
problems, doesn't it?
It does. We set those goals knowing the development cycle. The advantage to
the OpenOffice move was that OpenOffice.org is already available [and] we were
able to move Novell without moving their desktops and things that are more
disruptive to the individual.
That got every individual in Novell involved. They all had to do something by
a certain date. My measurement of success for that goal is that every
individual has OpenOffice, [and] all internal collaboration in Novell is
happening with OpenOffice.
What we did learn -- and it's an important part of why we're doing this -- is
a view of impediments. We found that for certain functions for certain
departments, there were reasons to still have active Microsoft Office usage.
Application plug-ins is an example.
Aren't they all moving to open source?
But right now they're not there. So those applications assume an import or
export function is into or out of [Microsoft] Excel. We've had years of
history where Microsoft is the default.
We [also] hit a few functional things we fed back to both Novell development
and the open source community. One example: Calc, the OpenOffice equivalent to
Excel, has a 32K limit on table size. I have functional users who can't live
with that limit [so] are still using Excel.
We have about an 87 percent active OpenOffice usage. I feel good about that.
Although we didn't get to 90 percent, we accomplished what we were out to do.
Now to the Linux desktop, the next goal. We have about 3,000 to 3,200
employees [out of 6,000] who've already implemented a Linux desktop, but
various versions. We're taking regular revisions from our development team
[and] many people went ahead and implemented SuSE Linux Enterprise Edition, a
component of the Novell Linux desktop.
We'll hit 50 percent by the end of October. We'll continue to learn as we do that.
Have you got any further targets in that schedule? Are you going for 90 or 100
percent?
Yes, a 100 percent target at the end of our second quarter, the end of April.
So what are your biggest roadblocks?
The personal, cultural change. That goes hand in hand with this kind of
project. All CIOs have internal customers who adopt quickly and who adopt slowly.
Did you need a training programme?
[For] OpenOffice we were pleasantly surprised. It really wasn't that different.
On the Web, we found quick reference materials [and] very good training
materials. Then we started to create an FAQ [frequently asked questions] list.
These are all on the portal site. We did offer formal training [but] we've had
very few people take us up on it.
[For] the Linux desktop, [it's] a little early to tell you. The Novell Linux
desktop may have different colours than Microsoft, but it's got icons you
click on and they open. Right now, I anticipate quick reference materials
[and] FAQs. As we hear things, we'll communicate them back out. But I don't
think we'll be sitting [users] down in a classroom even for an hour.
What steps do you recommend to a reasonable-sized company thinking of migrating?
Think seriously about that first move away from the Microsoft productivity
suite to OpenOffice.
Most corporations will make the move based on business targets. Certain
customers don't use the full [Windows] features. They access maybe two to
three business applications per day [and] live in those applications maybe the
full day. There's no reason why, when they're going to do a refresh, they
don't go for Linux. It's easy.
It gets more difficult for the knowledge workers -- actually the majority in
Novell -- that use all the features and functions of their equipment,
includingwireless , all the productivity suites and a large set of applications.
So I recommend to CIOs, and I have this discussion with many: think about your
enterprise and think about easy targets. There's no reason why Linux and
Windows machines can't co-exist in your company.
[Then] they need leadership buy-in. For any desktop move in a company, the CIO
can't just go: "We're doing this," without the buy-in of the business
leadership. It's not just a once-only head-nod.
I gather there's a lot of desktop interest. Could people become disillusioned
through hurdles such as legacy applications?
The reason it was so important that we experienced the "pain" internally [was]
to figure out a set of viable options for any organisation making the move. So
we can [now] recommend them to another CIO.
CIOs in general are pretty risk-averse people. I certainly am. This is not
going to go away. [But] I believe we'll reach a point where Windows and Linux
desktops co-exist. It'll be a viable alternative not just to consumers but in
all enterprises to make the decision [between] Linux and Windows.
Are legacy applications on Windows the biggest potential problem?
There are a variety of technologies that allow you to run Windows client-based
applications on a Linux desktop. We've now defined, using our own enterprise
applications, which of these technologies is appropriate for which kinds of
business application.
That's certainly work people must acknowledge they have to do to make the
migration, but I don't think that's an impediment. [This is true] even when we
talk about a Windows desktop migration from one version to the next, so it's
not unique to Linux.
How does the footprint of the Novell Linux desktop relate to Windows XP ? Much
smaller; that's the nature of the OS. And equivalent documents are much
smaller. It's just amazing. We're talking magnitudes such as one-tenth the size.
Have you looked beyond the desktop project?
We have a concurrent goal to double the presence of [server] Linux in our
datacentre. We achieved a doubling of the Linux presence just by using the
regular triggered events that you have in an I.T. department. Servers due to
be replaced were replaced with SuSE Linux.
--
NYLXS - New Yorks Free Software Scene
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