Three Times You Need to Consider “LAMP”–and the One Time That Nothing Else Will Do!
The combination of the Linux kernel, Apache web server, MySQL database engine, and a scripting language such as Perl, Python, or PHP–commonly known as LAMP–has well-known advantages over commercial software in terms of cost and flexibility. I give examples of projects for which LAMP is arguably a good option, and also provide one scenario in which it’s clearly the best choice.
The First Time: Large-scale rollouts
Besides the low per-unit cost of a LAMP platform, there’s no need for license management. Therefore, you can install the operating system and standard applications on a clean PC; add on your custom applications, database, and configuration options; and create a single per-unit configuration script.
The resulting contents of the hard drive may then be replicated quickly and painlessly (with the dd command) to as many additional hard drives as you like. Then pop the hard drives into identical hardware setups, run any scripts that may be required to input site-specific data, and you are done. I’ve seen this technique working smoothly for rollouts of 730 retail store systems and 3000 hotel front desk systems. It will work for you.
The Second Time: Cross-platform nightmares
Consider LAMP when your existing platforms run the gamut from Windows XP to OS/400 with stops at Netware, DOS, and MacOS. Linux networks well with Windows using Samba, with Apple systems using netatalk, and with Netware using the built-in IPX stack. You can even obtain a commercial SNA gateway for connecting Linux with an IBM minicomputer or mainframe.
You’ll find that Linux can share files, printers, and network resources seamlessly with almost everything else. For web applications, which are inherently cross-platform in nature, Apache is an excellent server.
The Third Time: When it’s not worth paying for
Your database services may run best on an optimized server platform, but those cost money. Maybe the workload isn’t too severe and you don’t need the fail-safe redundancy or multiprocessing power of a dedicated HP or Sun or IBM Unix system. It might be just as easy, and far less costly, to outfit a commodity-priced PC unit with any Linux distribution you like, including MySQL.
The same possibilities are available for messaging (including email), batch processing, web serving, or other services. The highest-end hardware with a dedicated Unix implementation might offer the best performance, which comes at a cost.
Sometimes less really is less, but it may be all you need.
When nothing else will do: Your own most critical applications!
It might seem odd at first to use freely available software for your most mission-critical applications. Aren’t your most important applications the ones that deserve the highest level of investment? Maybe so, but they are also the ones that require and justify the most accommodation and customization.
A case study from Fujitsu illustrates the point. Linux was chosen for the back-end system that aggregates and consolidates point of sale (POS) data at each KFC store in the Philippinesin part because of its stability and ease of configuration in contrast to proprietary operating systems. The transition was admittedly a complex project. The benefits of a successful implementation, however, were worth it.
In my own practice, I.T. management at a prominent retail chain wanted to keep their legacy POS software but needed better networking and runtime support than the DOS-based platform provided. Together with the legacy vendor, we worked to port the application to Linux. The retailer saved hundreds of thousands of dollars on Windows licensing, although the big win was in dramatically reducing problem-solving time. Disaster recovery situations are now rare. Viruses and spyware are totally unknown. And Linux allowed us to configure bi-directional receipt printing over the networkwhich made it possible (among other things) for one host to scan MICR codes and authorize checks in real time.
Conclusion
LAMP platforms offer control, possibly sometimes at the cost of a little extra setup time. For an enterprise’s most important applications that effort is well spent, avoiding not only the dollar costs of commercial licensing but also its vampire-like lock-in effect.
Today’s open-source programs offer so many more options and are more “enterprise capable” than their commercial counterparts. LAMP allows managers to do more strategic things, faster, on their own timetablerather than waiting on a vendor’s market-driven schedule. In this world of new choices, successful organizations are those that obtain and judiciously apply expertise to navigate the many options and fine-tune the resulting solutions.
Mark W. Schumann has been helping business sort out critical results from their data since one late evening in 1988, when he used a PC-AT and a copy of dBASE III to audit an insurance company’s receivable accounts that had been distorting their P&L statements for three years. Today Mark helps supply chain (manufacturing, distribution, logistics, and retail) executives who are frustrated by incompatible systems; as a result of joining his Critical Results Partnership, they increase margins by simplifying operations.
Call Mark at 216-661-2000 or see http://criticalresults.com
