Problem-solvers hunt open-source solutions

whole management infrastructure surrounding it," he said.

Aliota Sharma, the CEO of Technetra Inc., an IT consulting company in Saratoga, Calif., wanted an open-source backup application for her company. Technetra is now evaluating one product from Zmanda Inc. to replace other open source tools. "Zmanda is a pretty unique product because it is an open-source product, which gives us great flexibility," she said. "We're interested in having a Linux-based solution because our company runs on Linux."

Dan Kusnetzky, principal analyst with the Kusnetzky Group LLC in Osprey, Fla., said the varied needs of Linux and open-source users follow a trend of recent years.

"At least [with] the corporate executives that I've been speaking with, ...Linux is part of every discussion," Kusnetzky said. "That was exactly the trend that I expected. It took a combination of things to get here. The technology had to mature and the features and functions that people needed had to become a part of the environment."

Open source in the enterprise "needed to have enough success stories" so executives and IT leaders could see that others were enthusiastically using it and then feel comfortable with the technology, Kusnetzky said. "IT executives are very risk-averse. They want to keep things in control and they want to cut costs. So they have a tendency to add new things in the environment [such as Linux and open source] very carefully. Because once its there, it's going to be there forever."