Consulting with customers around collaboration technologies reveals just how easily they end up on a total MS infrastructure platform just due to the path of least resistance that springs up. I went to a customer a while back - a large UKGov organisation- who was a major Novell house with the usual disatisfaction over a coming price-hike in their enterprise agreement and just looking around for alternatives, potentially just for a big stick to wave at Novell. The origin of the conversation was interest in Exchange, with a side interest in Sharepoint, especially bearing in mind the recent Freedom of Information Act (FoIA). The conversation went something like this:
- We want to know more about Exchange and compare license/deployment/migration costs
- You know you'll need AD for that and will be getting the headache of running two Network OS DIrectories?
- Well, while we're at it then. What's the best directory for managing a completely Windows estate.
- Over time, I guess you've got to say AD really.
- OK. Can we retain our investment in Zen for managing the desktop and Software deployment?
- Not really, not without still maintaining some element of eDirectory
- I guess there's no point in considering using N-whatever, the Novell portal that only our Technical Guys are pushing, against such a backdrop of MS infrastructure then either
- So how much is Exchange again?
- Would you like a proposal?
So how does this end up? Migration to XP, Exchange, new Office release. Medium term plan to deploy Sharepoint and migrate to SMS/MOM for management. Real Domino effect. Once you decide you want one directory -or are concerned about entering the whole metadirectory space- and choose AD as the best thing to manage an XP/Vista estate (can't argue with that really) you've pretty much got Exchange and SMS in the door. Then you've got a good 70% chance that Sharepoint will follow at some point, even though it doesn't explicitly require AD. Oh, and that means you're going to have SQL Server doing something and aren't you a little tempted to put in LCS too?
This whole meeting took place with a bunch of people who were very pro-Novell but who's argument was based on what they'd heard at the last Brainshare and was such vapour about a complete Linux environment that they barely had a chance.
Don't get me wrong. This is not an example of how naughty MS are. This is what everyone, from IBM to Sun and Oracle are trying to do every time they sell you a single item on the stack (even more so with SUN with their $100 a seat all you can eat buffet.) Its just MS has the complete advantage because they pretty much still own the corporate desktop. Sure there are orgs considering going elsewhere, or have dependency on strange hardware or O/S but I'm pretty sure this is how the conversations are playing out, thousands of times a day, all over the place.
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