Windows vs. Linux vs. Reliability

On the uptime-downtime border, Windows Server 2003 has won in reliability compared to Red Hat Enterprise Linux with more than 20% uptime, being bested by Unix-based server operating systems. All this is indicated in a comparison under similar deployment of the two companies' operating systems.

Although on a large scale all of the server operating systems have demonstrated an improvement in reliability in the past years, the jump made by Windows Server 2003 clearly demonstrates Microsoft's trajectory to deviate customer preferences from open-source solutions to its own.

The survey indicates that on average, individual server failures, be them Linux, Windows or Unix, amount to 10.0 to 19.5 hours of annual downtime for each server. In addition, in a negative top, standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux gained more outage time compared to Windows or Unix competitors.

Yankee Group's survey, claiming to be independent, is somewhat biased toward Windows and Unix server operating systems, compared to Linux' open-source ones, concluding that metrics such as reliability, performance, security and management ultimately depend on an individual company's implementation.

"Corporations must implement and strictly adhere to best practices in training, testing and configuration to ensure optimal server operating system performance and application reliability," said said Laura DiDio, Yankee Group Application Infrastructure & Software Platforms research fellow.