Whats best way to migrate a business to Linux

@ Randal

We don't have a rack, the current server is a pedastal, My god its noisey, lucky its in sound proof room.

We currently have 11 staff, but that is likely to at least double in the next year possibly quadrupel. The document managment system is to store scan old paper files into so the the files can be shreded, for the most part they files won't be accessed but we need to be able to get them quickly and easily if the regulator asks. It will also store documents for live clients that we will need to access all the time.

@ fluff & edscdk

I understand what you guys are saying, I am looking at all the posibilities. While our current IT support contractor is a Windows Outfit we don't have to stick with them long term, I am happy to look at supported SLES/VMware environments and such like.

Since we are growing the business now is the time to ask these questions, if I take the Windows route now we will be spending the money now only to spend even more money later as we need more users. I don't mind testing this stuff with free(as in beer) products but then rolling out equivelent supported versions when it come to actual depolyment.
 
edscdk said:
Try this out on the boss,

"I have a great idea, I know nothing about Linux, our IT people cannot support linux but im going to install a server that we SHOULD be able to get working...."

Seriously get a company that WILL install and support the system for you or stick with windows...

linux + a business + no support + cobbled together = MASSIVE fail (at some point down the line)

to save money consider scarpping exchange and moving to gmail...
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Or change the "Support Company" to someone who is Linux based and should be able to migrate the system lock stock and barrel and maintain it for you?

It's just a thought :)
 
randal24 said:
I'm tempted to offer my services to support it remotely, but I'm certain that's against several forum rules. :D
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I can't see anythink in the rules to stop you offering your services, OCs don't sell Linux support as far as I am aware so you would not be treading on their toes.

I am pretty sure they don't like you advertising in your sig. How is it you do the whole trust thingy so I can you my email address without it showing in the thread.
 
Essexraptor said:
Or change the "Support Company" to someone who is Linux based and should be able to migrate the system lock stock and barrel and maintain it for you?

It's just a thought :)
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Its a good thought, we may go that route but I think I'll test the water with some freebies to start out.
 
PhilGQ said:
I can't see anythink in the rules to stop you offering your services, OCs don't sell Linux support as far as I am aware so you would not be treading on their toes.

I am pretty sure they don't like you advertising in your sig. How is it you do the whole trust thingy so I can you my email address without it showing in the thread.
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I'm pretty sure it's covered by the no traders rule, admittedly I'm not - but all the same I wouldn't want to fall foul of anything. If you do need a hand or any advice though then mail in trust. :)
 
I'm fairly skeptical here too. The saving grace is that a sufficiently competent initial set up with the likes of debian stands a good chance of working without any fuss (possibly without any maintenance) whatsoever for years. The problem is that the initial set up will be difficult, and if it does go wrong down the line things may be difficult indeed.

I wouldn't dream of using a gui on a home server, the thought of putting gnome on a production server is horrific. Changing to linux is unlikely to save much money if you go down the supported route either. Saving money on a server in general doesn't seem sensible, assuming it breaking would be expensive anyway.
 
If your IT support company uses Windows and you do not have the in house expertise to deploy and manage Linux, don't. You will end up killing something. If you can find a company to install and manage your Linux environment then that could be a good route to go.

Everyone touts Linux as OMG we're saving on licensing. There is a good reason why linux is not in every small office. I'm a Linux fan but in this situation I wouldn't be looking to move. Depending on your MS licenses you may be able to setup a new server and use your existing MS licensing.

One thing you could consider is to outsource you email management to something like googleapps or a hosted exchange provider. This will be a monthly fee and allow you to keep some capital. For a new file server you could get a higher end NAS box to store local files.

For 11 users, completely forget virtualization. You are far too small to do it properly.
 
Google apps in a non starter we can't use something like that for financial services, its asking for trouble.

I have thought of hosting the exchange, and getting a NAS which would be drop in replacment for what we have. It would also make sense for the low number of users.

However we are planning on growing the business and adding CRM functionality on site, this project has to solve a current problem and be expandable for our future requirements.

If I have to hire a Linux Sysadmin futhure down the line then I will, I am just not in a position to do it now. The main reason I am thinking of virtualisation is I can test of the shelf VMs for VOIP and CRM etc, the final solution will depend on the sucess of the tests.
 
I think the only way to be certain is to do a proof of concept on a machine and see if you can get it to do what you want, and by that I also mean you can get a feel for it's supportability. Nothing ventured.
 
PhilGQ said:
Google apps in a non starter we can't use something like that for financial services, its asking for trouble.

I have thought of hosting the exchange, and getting a NAS which would be drop in replacment for what we have. It would also make sense for the low number of users.

However we are planning on growing the business and adding CRM functionality on site, this project has to solve a current problem and be expandable for our future requirements.

If I have to hire a Linux Sysadmin futhure down the line then I will, I am just not in a position to do it now. The main reason I am thinking of virtualisation is I can test of the shelf VMs for VOIP and CRM etc, the final solution will depend on the sucess of the tests.
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Fair point about google apps and the business you are in.

You could host your CRM app (providing it is web based) with a managed VPS, it will cost you around 30 quid per month and would be fully managed, backed up etc. Use SSL and some IP rules to secure it down.

Why do you need VOIP?

If you are struggling to justify the costs for licensingm virtualizing with VOIP etc seriously isn't for you. To virtaulize properly you need to spend a good bit of cash (centalized storage, support agreements, minimum two servers etc). I'm not saying this isn't something that could happen in the future though with growth. If you want to test some VOIP stuff, throw virtualbox or VMWare player on your PC and test it a little from there.

To me, it seems as though the company wants all the toys, virtualization, voip without committing a decent budget. Even if you were to buy a NAS now, hosted exchange and hosted CRM you would easily be able to bring this in house when you can fully afford to purchase a decent system and associated support personnel. I do understand that you want to spend wisely now for the future. :).

Good luck.

EDIT: Just to add. How is your business going to grow? Do you think you will have external sales teams and offices in the future? Or are you always going to be one head office?
 
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randal24 said:
I think the only way to be certain is to do a proof of concept on a machine and see if you can get it to do what you want, and by that I also mean you can get a feel for it's supportability. Nothing ventured.
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Agreed, it can't hurt to try it and it will be an experince, I probably try to cobble together a usable box to fiddle with at home so I don't reck my home system. Probably that dual core I mentioned earlier just to see what I can achieve. I don't have to go the whole hog and do everything together either.

I may ask for your help, but don't want to waste your time if its not going to come off.
 
JonRohan said:
Fair point about google apps and the business you are in.

You could host your CRM app (providing it is web based) with a managed VPS, it will cost you around 30 quid per month and would be fully managed, backed up etc. Use SSL and some IP rules to secure it down.
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Performance is the problem with hosted solutions, fine for emial but uploading and download files is to slow. We have a hosted backoffice and its annoying, want to get away from that if its possible.


JonRohan said:
Why do you need VOIP?

If you are struggling to justify the costs for licensingm virtualizing with VOIP etc seriously isn't for you. To virtaulize properly you need to spend a good bit of cash (centalized storage, support agreements, minimum two servers etc). I'm not saying this isn't something that could happen in the future though with growth. If you want to test some VOIP stuff, throw virtualbox or VMWare player on your PC and test it a little from there.
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I was thinking VOIP would be the best way to go to replaced our telephones, Ideally running headsets from the PCs instead of desk phones an such like, having a decent directory and tying it to the CRM package. I was thinking of virtualization mainly from an easy of testing premade VMs and rolling them back when I break them. The final solution could just as well run on a physical machine.


JonRohan said:
Good luck.

EDIT: Just to add. How is your business going to grow? Do you think you will have external sales teams and offices in the future? Or are you always going to be one head office?
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mostly at head office, sales force will be remote but will not need to mess about with large documents.
 
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There is little mention in the thread of how your be backing this all up on linux / vmware. If you manage to get it up and running.

At some point your need to go command line. You will need a proper support company in place. your need a hardware vendor that supports your choice of OS as well, HP, IBM or Dell.

Why is it not feasible to use Google apps ? cost £33 per user per year email and phone support and does the same as exchange pretty much. I know of very well known international companies using google apps.

I think you really need to get some Linux people in to discuss your needs and plan a way forward. Ensuring there is a smooth transition of data and services.

Voip is great :) but what broadband speeds do you have ? ideally your need a dedicated line for voip, use someone like voipfone as they can offer virtual PBX's and stuff.

just some thoughts
 
hi deano

Thanks for input, I know of at least one Novell Partner based within 20 miles of us so I might speak to them if my tests seem positive. They do Red hat too if the recent Novell/Suse aquisition doesn't seem positive.

Problem with google is: Where is the server if its outsie the European Economic Area, then you breach the Data protection act once you store any customer data on it.
 
RedHat licenses aren't all that cheap. They may be on par with Windows SBS. CentOS could be an alternative if the support company will support it. I can't see why they would want to as they have support themsevles.

I wouldn't be looking to use Novell either way.
 
First thing - tell them in a nice way not to be so tight - if they want a decent I.S. infrastructure that will last them now and into the future with those expansion plans in mind, they need to budget some decent money
 
If I were you, I'd run things in parallel and not replace anything just yet.

From your original post it sounds like the most pressing issues are disk space and email. My personal recommendation here would be to consider a decent NAS (Have a look at Synology) for storage and to consider and managed mail platform such as Gmail. I've worked for many service providers and large enterprises and can guarantee you will have a very hard time matching the kind of service you get from GMail and it will be infinitely less hassle.

This may not sound as exciting as a Linux based solution but believe me it will give you a lot less headaches.
 
I have not made a lot of progress if I am honest, some of my colleagues have been talking about going off site with Exchange. Another colleague has been in touch with our IT company about moving the off site back up to them. I took the opportunity to speak to them about hosting an intranet for us.

They pretty much told us that our broadband is to slow for all the stuff we want to ram down it. I asked him about running Linux to reduce the cost of the server he was peddling. He said they could do it for us which is good news. He has suggested that we reuse our 2003 license instead though and buy the server on the never never since it will be cheaper than a subscription to all of the off site services.

Other than that I found a couple of open source document management programs that I intend to test once I get a chance. Alfresco and Openkm both run on Linux or Windows so I can do a phased introduction of Linux.
 
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