City of Largo – Florida, USA
In 2000, the IT department of Largo was evaluating upgrade options for their IT systems. Various options were evaluated including Microsoft Windows on personal computers. At this time the city’s IT infrastructure was already running on Unix. Migrating to Microsoft Windows required a combination of hardware and software whose cost would have been prohibitively expensive. Also the IT team did not want to be locked into a 2-3 year upgrade cycle of Microsoft company where they would be forced to pay upgrade costs even when upgrades were not necessary. A decision was made to keep the existing thin-client infrastructure but migrate to a Linux system based on Red Hat’s distribution.
The migration to Linux was estimated to have saved the city as much as US$1 million in the first year alone. Currently Largo has an IT budget that is only about 40% the size of the comparable cities. While Largo is comfortable spending 1.3% of its budget, other similar cities must spend 3% to 4% of their budget on IT. The efficiency with which Linux uses hardware did not regular upgrades of desktops – thus saved on cost. In fact after implementation in 2002 the IT team estimated that the next time upgrades could be necessary was in 2007.
The IT team also realized that the number of personnel that was required reduced significantly. The end-user help desk required only two to three people to support a user of 800 workers. This low ratio was attributed to the reliability, stability and predictability of the Linux based system.
References
David, A. (2007). Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)? Look at the Numbers! Retrieved from http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html
Other important sources
Robert, C & Richard C. (2004) . Free and Open Source Software. Overview and Preliminary Guidelines for the Government of Canada. Retrieved from www.sita.co.za/FOSS/Gov_Canada-OSS_Guide-Dec04.pdf
Allen, G. (2008). Good to Great FOSS: Learnings from Africa . Retrieved from www.aspirationtech.org/files/GoodToGreatFOSS-LearningsFromAfrica.pdf
Kenneth, W.(2004). Free/Open Source Software: Government Policy. Retrieved from http://www.sita.co.za/FOSS/Gov-OSS_Guide-04.pdf
The migration to Linux was estimated to have saved the city as much as US$1 million in the first year alone. Currently Largo has an IT budget that is only about 40% the size of the comparable cities. While Largo is comfortable spending 1.3% of its budget, other similar cities must spend 3% to 4% of their budget on IT. The efficiency with which Linux uses hardware did not regular upgrades of desktops – thus saved on cost. In fact after implementation in 2002 the IT team estimated that the next time upgrades could be necessary was in 2007.
The IT team also realized that the number of personnel that was required reduced significantly. The end-user help desk required only two to three people to support a user of 800 workers. This low ratio was attributed to the reliability, stability and predictability of the Linux based system.
References
David, A. (2007). Why Open Source Software / Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS)? Look at the Numbers! Retrieved from http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html
Other important sources
Robert, C & Richard C. (2004) . Free and Open Source Software. Overview and Preliminary Guidelines for the Government of Canada. Retrieved from www.sita.co.za/FOSS/Gov_Canada-OSS_Guide-Dec04.pdf
Allen, G. (2008). Good to Great FOSS: Learnings from Africa . Retrieved from www.aspirationtech.org/files/GoodToGreatFOSS-LearningsFromAfrica.pdf
Kenneth, W.(2004). Free/Open Source Software: Government Policy. Retrieved from http://www.sita.co.za/FOSS/Gov-OSS_Guide-04.pdf