Around 40 per cent of data centres are running a combination of Linux or Unix and Windows, a poll of attendees at Gartner's Data Centre Conference reveals.
Questioned on the makeup of their major enterprise data centre, 40 per cent of the respondents said it comprised of mainframes running Unix, Linux and Windows, 14 per cent had a mainframe with just Unix and Windows, while four per cent were running just Windows on a mainframe. Only one per cent had a mainframe running Unix only.
A further 24 per cent said they were running Unix, Linux and Windows but without a mainframe and ten per cent were running Unix and Windows without a mainframe.
Gartner analyst George Weiss said: "Nothing in this [latest] survey reveals any factors that would suggest the momentum in favour of Linux will 'hit a wall'."
However, he added that "the more complex Linux platform deployments become... the more likely it is that costs will approach, if not exceed, those of other [operating system] environments".
Mr Weiss said in a research note published this week that 31 per cent of respondents were planning to increase their Linux expenditure significantly, while 51 per cent would increase it moderately. Only three per cent said their spending would decrease moderately or rapidly, ZDNet reports.