Some users in large organisations, in which multiple versions of UNIX are deployed, have set a goal of consolidating their UNIX systems over time on Linux distributions.
Indeed, the capabilities of the Linux operating system have matured considerably with the delivery of distributions based on the 2.6 kernel. In critical areas such as SMP scalability, Linux distributions targeting enterprise requirements have significantly narrowed the gap with UNIX systems. For example, with minimal tuning, Linux now has the ability to fully exploit servers with 32 to 64 processors and beyond.
However, in terms of many other functional requirements that are considered critical in modern enterprise IT environments, HP-UX continues to offer significant advantages over the leading Linux distributions, particularly in areas related to reliability and security.
HP-UX stands out in its ability to be deployed easily alongside volume-oriented operating systems such as Windows and Linux, using virtualisation functions such as HP Integrity Virtual Machines, hardware-based, electrically isolated HP Integrity server nPars and HP’s market-leading blade platform.
The balanced range of HP-UX functions and superior integration, plus its flexibility to be deployed in much of the same industry-standard infrastructures as Linux, continue to give HP-UX a fundamental advantage over Linux for hosting the most critical workloads in typical enterprise environments.
An Ideas International white paper presents a technical comparison of HP-UX 11i v3, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES 10), focusing on their functional capabilities in terms of scalability, virtualisation, reliability, security and manageability.
