CPTTM CIO newsletter issue #16

Dear CIO/IT managers,

This CPTTM CIO newsletter is to bring useful news to you, CIO/IT managers in Macau, for references without obligations, so that you can do your jobs easier and better! Hope you like it. if you'd like to unsubscribe or recommend your friends to subscribe, just let me know. Old issues are available here.

Kent Tong, Editor in Chief

Topics in this issue:

How CPTTM uses Linux
Businss owners arrested for using pirate software

How CPTTM uses Linux

At Cyber-Lab, we use Linux as the file server, the router/firewall/VPN server, DNS server, DHCP server, web server, system management server and the domain controller for the classrooms. For the whole CPTTM, we use Linux as the mail server (also as the anti-spam and anti-virus gateways), web mail server and the database server for our core business system.

Why use Linux? Licensing cost is a factor, but it is not the only one. Actually I'd choose Linux over Windows even if their licensing costs were the same, because Linux is much easier to manage (so, less burden on the IT staff), as long as you get pass the initial learning curve. Here are some examples:

Easy to keep updated. In Linux, whenever there are security updates on any package, we will get email notifications. In contrast, Windows update works only for software from Microsoft only, not 3rd party software.
Easy to upgrade the whole system. In Linux, we can upgrade the OS to the next major version. In principle, one can upgrade Windows too, but in practice, I once tried upgrading a Windows NT server to Win2K and many things stopped working.
Easy to troubleshoot. In Linux, if there is something that doesn't work, usually we can find out the problem in the log (enable verbose logging if required), because open source software usually logs a lot of information. In contrast, usually Windows software will only tell you a brief error message and there is no way to troubleshoot the problem.
Easy to automate. In Linux, we can write a simple script to perform network backup or synchronize files over a WAN using built-in commands. We even have a script to reset the admin's passwords in our classroom domain everyday. In Windows, we will have to find extra software or write custom programs for these.
Easy to update. In Linux, in-use files can be updated just like others. Therefore we seldom need to reboot after updating a package (unless the kernel itself is updated). In Windows, updating a browser may require a reboot! Therefore using Linux means less downtime for the users.

So, is Linux right for everyone? No. To get the benefits, your staff need to get pass the initial learning curve. Usually Linux software has dozens or even hundreds of configuration settings and a million way to combine them (so even the most rare cases are supported). So, it takes time to learn the settings in order to configure it. In contrast, configuring Windows software usually only requires a few clicks of "OK" and the default will work in many cases.

So, is Linux right for your organization? The following IT organization profiles may help you decide:

Should embrace Linux	Should stay away from Linux
IT staff are smart and willing to learn	IT staff lack the foundation to learn new stuff
Wants to achieve a shorter incident resolution time	Satisfied with the current incident resolution time (or simply don't care)
Wants to achieve a greater availability	Satisfied with the current availability (or simply don't care)
Wants to achieve more with less IT man power	Satisfied with the current IT man power utilization
Needs to customize IT services to meet the needs of the business	The business has little or standard requirement on the IT services.

If you'd like to adopt Linux, you should seriously consider sending your IT staff for some Linux training. We have been conducting official RedHat training and official RedFlag training. We are also preparing to introduce LPI training and conduct workshops on some other Linux brands such as Sunwah Linux.

Business owners arrested for using pirate software

The HK Customs raided 7 companies in a month and seized 72 computers with pirate software. 14 people were arrested and they were the company directors, owners or IT managers. The pirate software was mainly Windows, MS Office, PageMaker and Photoshop. It's quite a pity because there are open source equivalents such as OpenOffice, Scribus and Gimp which all run on Windows and have enough functions for most people.

Feedbacks

Any questions, ideas or experiences to share? Contact me at 28781313 or kent at cpttm dot org dot mo.

Until next time,

Kent Tong