FAA May Ditch Microsoft’s Windows Vista And Office For Google And Linux
Combo
FAA chief information officer David Bowen said he’s taking a close look
at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the
agency’s Windows XP-based desktop computers and laptops.
March is coming in like a lion for Microsoft’s public sector business.
Days after InformationWeek reported that the Department of
Transportation has placed a moratorium on upgrades to Windows Vista,
Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7, the top technology official at the
Federal Aviation Administration revealed that he is considering a
permanent ban on the Microsoft software in favor of a combination of
Google’s new online business applications running on Linux-based
hardware.
In an interview, FAA chief information officer David Bowen said he’s
taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls
replacements for the agency’s Windows XP-based desktop computers and
laptops. Bowen cited several reasons why he finds Google Apps
attractive. “It’s a different sort of computing strategy,” he said. “It
takes the desktop out of the way so you’re running a very thin client.
From a security and management standpoint that would have some
advantages.”
Google launched Google Apps Premier Edition last month at a price of
$50 per user, per year. It features online e-mail, calendaring,
messaging, and talk applications, as well as a word processor and a
spreadsheet. The launch followed Google’s introduction of a similar
suite aimed at consumers in August. The new Premier Edition, however,
offers enhancements, including 24×7 support, aimed squarely at corporate
and government environments.
Bowen said he’s in talks with the aviation safety agency’s main
hardware supplier, Dell Computer, to determine if it could deliver
Linux-based computers capable of accessing Google Apps through a
non-Microsoft browser once the FAA’s XP-based computers pass their shelf
life. “We have discussions going on with Dell,” Bowen said. “We’re
trying to figure out what our roadmap will be after we’re no longer able
to acquire Windows XP.”
Bowen, however, said he has not definitely ruled out an FAA-wide
upgrade to Windows Vista and related software — if Microsoft can
satisfy his concerns over compatibility with the agency’s existing
applications and demonstrate why such a move would make financial sense
given Google Apps’s low price. “We have a trip to Microsoft scheduled
for later this month,” said Bowen.
Like the Department of Transportation, the FAA — technically under DOT
but managed separately — has its own moratorium in place on upgrades to
Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7, and Microsoft Office 2007. Among
other things, Bowen said the FAA’s copies of IBM’s Lotus Notes software
don’t work properly on test PCs running Windows Vista.
Bowen’s compatibility concerns, combined with the potential cost of
upgrading the FAA’s 45,000 workers to Microsoft’s next-generation
desktop environment, could make the moratorium permanent. “We’re
considering the cost to deploy [Windows Vista] in our organization. But
when you consider the incompatibilities, and the fact that we haven’t
seen much in the way of documented business value, we felt that we
needed to do a lot more study,” said Bowen.
Because of Google Apps’ sudden entry into the desktop productivity
market, what once would have been a routine decision at the FAA to
eventually upgrade to Microsoft’s latest software is now firmly up in
the air. With similar debates doubtless playing out at other government
agencies — and in the private sector — Microsoft is going to have to
work a lot harder than in past years convincing customers to follow its
well worn path of new releases and follow-on patches.
Link:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197800480
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