Even if a heterogeneous setup of servers, desktops and dedicated devices works seamlessly, IT teams must still deal with interface issues that affect provisioning, configuration and management. With increasing deployment of underlying Linux, IT managers can choose from a range of common supported management interfaces (HTTP, FTP, SNMP, SSH, Telnet) and expect comparable behaviors from devices that use the same management protocols, especially the Simple Network Management Protocol, under Linux.

Moreover, provisioning and management tools from third parties (like OpenCountry (http://www.opencountry.com/) further simplify and unify these chores, both with underlying Linux hosts and even in some cases on other platforms.

Security

IT staff must constantly scramble to keep legacy platforms up to date with patches and service packs designed to meet emerging security threats. While the media is full of news about exploits in Microsoft Windows and Internet Explorer, what most reports fail to capture is the range and diversity of systems under threat and the spiraling effort needed to secure them. As companies embrace Linux, IT teams find they can trade a proprietary mishmash that relies mostly on obscurity for an open, standards-based platform.

Rather than relying on one large vendor and a multitude of smaller ones for security patches, IT staffers can turn to peer-level support, community resources and their own expertise to address emerging security threats. And, because all implementations of Linux -- from servers to desktops to embedded -- use the same open-source IP stacks, Ipchains firewalls, SSH/SSL, security modules and other mechanisms, administrators can reuse hard-won expertise in one environment across their entire infrastructure.