For some it may take two years, others four, five or even more.
Enterprise organizations are beginning to map out their Unix exit strategies as the computer operating system, first installed in 1972, continues its journey to insignificance according to Gartner Research.
Among the predictable replacement choices are HP-UX, Solaris, AIX, Linux and Windows.
However, the OpenStack cloud computing platform, Hadoop big data platform and other emerging cloud computing systems are also catching the attention of some organizations, according to Gartner analyst, George Weiss.
Unix revenue has been shrinking, according to analyst firm IDC. Worldwide revenue of the OS in 2012 was $8.5 billion, or 22.8 per cent less than the previous year’s total of $11.1 billion.
Third quarter server revenue in 2103 of Unix was $1.3 billion or 31 per cent less than the 2012 total.
Data centres are moving workloads such as analytics, business applications, data warehousing and online processing transaction systems to x86 servers running Linux to lower cost and to gain standardization, said Matt Eastwood, an IDC analyst.
Eastwood said weak economic conditions are also prompting enterprises to seek out less expensive platforms.