[Opensource] OT: Total cost of ownership

[Michael Rimov]

Geeta,

If you are talking TCO, then also be sure mention the cost of Blaster, 
CodeRed, SQL-Slammer and other MS-targeted virus cleanups in your 
reports.  Total cleanup cost for each of these has been in the billions of 
dollars of lost business estimated.

One thing to keep in mind is that with the advent of webservice toolkits, 
it is very easy to integrate J2EE and .NET.  TheServerSide has its own 
hybrid system that it is demonstrating in a live environment.  This is 
especially true if you want thick clients (example, a C# windows 
application) communicating with a Java back end.  The Expresso Webservices 
product is perfect for such a thing!

The ability to run Java on servers other than Windows definitely is the 
actual big issue that is preventing .NET being an even more serious 
contender against Java.  If you are targeting a windows market, then 
there's nothing wrong with .NET. After all, usually if running a windows 
server, then you tie in Tomcat or another app server into IIS, so you often 
have the nearly the same security issues as a .NET app as far as server 
security is concerned... no real gain there.

If you don't want to limit your market, however, then a non-.NET approach 
IMO is the way to go server-side-wise.  J2EE works great on Linux, 
Solaris,  Windows, and Mac OS X. How can you beat that?

Mergers are always tough as companies find new direction.  I hope it goes well.
						-Mike