CENTURY 21 Mike Bowman, Inc.

The role of the technology department is to build and support the best solutions for our customers. The responsibilities of the department include: Defining and implementing the company's technical architecture Supporting web and software infrastructure development Providing technical guidance Developing and supporting a set of common services including web services and system management services Establishing and maintaining performance benchmarks Testing products for compliance to agreed-upon standards for system and solution performance, stability, and usability gathering Recently, Michael Owens, IT Director, was interviewed and featured by the Pervasive Software Company's reports about the company's efforts in using the latest technology in developing the company's infrastructure. This article has been featured in several publications: CENTURY 21 Mike Bowman, Inc. offers residential and commercial real estate sales and listings, property lease management, full-service relocation, HUD services, an in-house mortgage center, and a customer service department. In 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2005 and 2006 CENTURY 21 Mike Bowman, Inc. has received the Grand CENTURION® Office Award for the No. 1 CENTURY 21 office in closed units worldwide. On May 6, 2003 I talked to Michael Owens, CENTURY 21 Mike Bowman CTO, to better understand Linux's impact on his firm's success. P: How are you using Linux today? Mr. Owens: Linux is our primary operating system, supporting the major functions of our intranet including the company web site, mail server, file server, DNS, POP3, IMAP, DHCP, FTP, etc. In addition, we use Pervasive.SQL on Linux to provide database services to our financial applications. P: What are your plans for Linux? How important is Linux in your 18 to 24 month roadmap? Mr. Owens: As you can see, our business depends Linux. We couldn't function without it. We believe it's the right choice for us. We do more with less on Linux. We plan to continue to implement all new projects on Linux. As legacy software gets replaced or re-written, we plan on using Linux to support new solutions. We also plan to begin transitioning desktop systems to the OS. We're evaluating our options for a productivity suite (Microsoft Office) and we are looking at solutions from Code Weavers and Star Office. P: Why did you consider Linux? Mr. Owens: I have a Microsoft background. In fact, I was a Microsoft Visual C programmer. We were a Microsoft shop. We tried everything to make it work. Our original web site used ASPs. We couldn't deal with the bugs, the patches, etc. It was overwhelming. In 1999 we started to evaluate Linux. I'll admit we had a learning curve, but once you understand the basic process it is standardized and repeatable. Plus the benefits are well worth the effort. P: What are the benefits of Linux? Mr. Owens: First, it's the reliability. It just works. Next, it's the flexibility. You have the option of using Linux right out of the box or configuring everything just the way you want it. We chose the Gentoo Linux (http://www.gentoo.org/) distribution because we believe it leverages this flexibility. It gives us fine-grained control with an easy upgrade model. P: What are the key business drivers? Mr. Owens: Funny thing is, Linux is so reliable that we'd be willing to pay more for it than the Microsoft equivalents, if we had to. But it is actually cheaper than our old solutions. It makes sense financially. P: What are the key technical drivers? Mr. Owens: Again, it's the reliability and flexibility. Another big benefit is the Internet support. It's easy to find the answers you need. We've run servers more than a year without a reboot. In the past year, we've only had one crash and that was caused by a hardware failure (fan failure led to overheating). We see fewer bugs and have no forced upgrades. In addition Linux is easier to control and script. P: What is or will be the biggest hurdle to Linux adoption in your organization? Mr. Owens: There are really two hurdles - 1. learning the "Linux way," and 2. overcoming perceptions about vendor support. It's relatively easy to learn the Linux way of doing things. It's a little more difficult to overcome the perceptions about vendor support. Linux's competitors have conditioned people to expect less support when a vendor is not involved, but that's simply not true. The availability of free support from the Linux community is incredible.	Michael Owens CIO Preston Hagar Programmer Kien Tran Programmer GinGin Owens Webmaster & Graphic Designer