Unilever ditches global Linux IT migration plans

Unilever has dropped plans to move its global IT infrastructure onto a Linux platform by 2006, saying the cost benefits originally used to justify the risk of the migration are no longer there.

The consumer goods giant, which manufactures brands such as Domestos, Dove and Flora, announced plans back in 2003 to cut £66m from its IT budget by switching from a Unix server platform to Linux running on Itanium. The aim was to eventually migrate the company's massive SAP systems onto the Linux platform.

But in an exclusive interview with silicon.com, Unilever CIO Neil Cameron, said the cost benefits of migrating en masse to an open source platform are no longer as clear cut as they were two years ago because of security and support issues.

"I was a bit concerned that we started to talk in terms of religion about this [Linux]," he said. "The world moves on. That was run on a financial model and the reality of a financial model is the landscape changes and the model doesn't work anymore."

But he said the emergence of Linux as a cheaper and viable enterprise option has been good for competition because it forced proprietary vendors to raise their game.

"It drives a bit of competition into the marketplace and stops suppliers being complacent. I think suppliers through open source have become more responsive. Suddenly I can do things with more proprietary products at a price performance that says actually the gap between that and open source isn't as wide as it was two years ago," he said.

Linux and open source will still have a place in Unilever's IT infrastructure but Cameron said it would be about "appropriate adoption" rather than migration for things such as firewalls.

"This is about how you navigate through quite choppy waters and keep your options open because at the end of the day we sell deodorants, washing powder and my job is to get IT in at the best price, most securely," he said.

Stay tuned for the full interview with Unilever CIO Neil Cameron, coming soon on silicon.com - for his views on driving complexity out of IT, keeping costs under control and the challenges of running an €800m global IT department.