US military nails 'best ever' Microsoft deal, brags size does matter US Department of Defense personnel will get their hands on Microsoft’s latest software in a deal officials claim is their best yet from Redmond. The government department has signed a three-year enterprise licence agreement with Microsoft worth $617m, giving its two-million-plus civilian and military staff access to Windows 8 …
What would you suggest they use instead?
Guess what, people use Microsoft because the alternatives are generally harder to use, require admin staff who cost more to employ, don't support as much modern hardware and nobody but annoying geeks know how to use it.
Yes, lets move from an OS with 90+% usage in the corporate world to one with less than 1% use in the corporate world. There's probably more OS/2 machines than Linux machines in the business world.
Of course servers is another matter altogether.
Have you tried talking someone through how to do something on the phone with a Linux desktop (without the command line)? you have no freakin idea what their GUI looks like since it could be one of a thousand different systems. Linux invented the whole pain of fragmentation, call it choice but I call it thousands of people all reinventing the wheel in a millions different colours.
They could use a battered-down version of Ubuntu, like the Dutch military does. A friend of mine works there, and they all get a USB-stick with this so that even if they are off-base, they have something they can boot off and establish a secure connection if need be, without having to worry about the spyware, viruses and other nasties that usually come with a Windows system.
It works pretty easy and they have no problems getting personnel to work with the OS. The FUD about not knowing, and thus not being able to use, linux is based on old information. Nowadays, linux is a grown-up, userfriendly system that even my grandmother can use.
I have successfully converted my elderly aunt and my uncle to Ubuntu with no effort at all. Even XFCE was easy enough to use for them, LibreOffice is much more familiar to them compared to Office since Office 2007, and they still can do everything they ever did on Windows.
I'd say the desktop fragmentation thing is FUD.
They do.
http://www.spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm: "Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) creates a secure end node from trusted media on almost any Intel-based computer (PC or Mac). LPS boots a thin Linux operating system from a CD or USB flash stick without mounting a local hard drive. Administrator privileges are not required; nothing is installed. The LPS family was created to address particular use cases: LPS-Public is a safer, general-purpose solution for using web-based applications. The accredited LPS-Remote Access is only for accessing your organization's private network."
But this is the DoD, where the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, but doesn't care because it's too busy defending itself from the left foot. (The existence of the right foot is classified.)
No need to post anonymously RICHTO, the stink of your FUD gives you away. The f-word you keep flogging to death is a synonym of *choice*... and it's something we *like*!... ESPECIALLY so in comparison to your evil cartel monoculture. Yuck. More of this wonderful "fragmentation" for me please :D
The second is what they're using to hold on to budgets at this point. the "Fiscal Cliff" just got kicked down the road, not averted. if the US Military wants to have MS software, it had best pay up now, while it has access to the cash.
WTF, 'Cause I'm not sure WTF the US Gov't is doing, and I'm not sure they do either.
No need to worry.
All the blather about cutting military budget is just retarded posturing.
Via antiwar.com:
On Monday, the Pentagon issued a statement warning that a failure to avoid the cuts would put the jobs of 800,000 civilian employees at risk.
But the proposed cuts to defense budgets are, frankly, puny. The harshest scenario for defense cuts would only put budgets back at about the 2007 level, and they aren’t even really “cuts” to defense spending; they are reductions in the rate of growth of defense spending.
Illustrating how these cries are more scare stories than anything else is Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s less publicized predictions, according to the Associated Press, that “workers…will not face layoffs immediately” and that “he does not believe the Pentagon’s day-to-day operations would change dramatically.”
The Microsoft guys negotiating the deal really don't care in the slightest about the level of discount that can be calculated against a per seat price. It was a given that they were going to sell an all of department license. The only question was what the maximum amount of money they could extract from the DoD was. That number was probably not too hard to discover. Then all they do is work on convincing the DoD to hand it over.
The DoD's job is to muddy the waters and convince MS that the DoD really have much less money to spend, and get MS to latch onto a goal price that is actually lower than it is. Given the number of ex-DoD consultants that MS could engage to help, I suspect the whip hand is actually Microsoft's, and not the DoD's. But it always good to let the loser save face. A press release from the DoD making themselves look good is a small price for MS to pay for extracting that last 100 million from the DoD.
If they're spending $617M on software over three years, how much would it cost to produce customised unix server and desktop software that does exactly what they want, nothing more, nothing less which has full control over the source code and isn't tied in to any one company.
At what point does customised (not new) software become cheaper than the stuff MS produces?
I've watched as government agencies try to dictate system development and fall flat on their face - commitment to Sun workstation, low bitrate ATM to the desktop, other superlative choices. After millions spent, they threw it all out and want to regular PCs, switched ethernet and other stuff the rest of the world was doing.
At what point does customised software become cheaper? with the government, likely never. (NASA perhaps being an exception.... sometimes)
This sounds great until you consider how much it would cost to develop said software, the chances of getting it right ( practically nil ).
On top of that, then you need to find techs to support it; good luck with that. Unless you plan on building out a world class training system, dealing with the 1+ year plus lead time between hiring a tech and real usefulness, plus paying the wages necessary for retention...ya, it adds up quickly.
Nope. If they could cover schools, business and government with a Linux development in the Extremadura region of Spain (which is, as far as I know about the poorest region) they sure as hell could throw a million or 2 at a project to do it for the US infrastructure, with as added bonus that they would actually be able to do a proper risk and security assessment.
I'd cook this up for 1..2 million, easy. Add a couple of mil for distribution and you're underway (the aforementioned Spanish region has one group of techs taking care of the lot, which is the joy of stable software).
Given that one of the El Reg team lives in Spain I'm surprised nobody has tried to do a followup - this thing was done more than 10 years ago (well before Munich) so there should be scope for some form of update article..
I'm sure they would have been able to get a better deal if they already had a Linux project going - that alone would have justified investing a million. In my opinion, this was simply the last defence money shafted out of the government before the lot collapses and remember - profits go offshore, so that money is lost for the US citizen. Ah, the joys of capitalism..
I have one of the guys who mantained Linex in my group.. I guess that must tell you the current state of Linex.
It was mostly discontinued.. for several reasons, partly due to budget constrains, partly because they had decided to use Debian (now you can flame me!!)
The new version should come out in a few months, but as most pple were made redundant more than one year ago.. and the rest some months later, let's say it is a new thing, based in the old one.
Bottom line: we should pay for OS AND programs. Be it through donations, taxes or upfront cost. At the end of the day, there is nothing free... someone has to pay.
Note: I do use Linux, and like it.
I have one of the guys who mantained Linex in my group
Just for others (who may have thought you misspelled it), LinEx is the Spanish project I meant.
You're right - the only way to do this properly is actually the approach the German government has taken with GPG (for example): take existing, viable projects and give them a boost so they become what you need. This is a clever use of tax payer's money as it doesn't just save money at government level, it also allows citizens to use the result and save money too (not just in software costs, but also through greater stability and an easier ability to customise).
Shame to hear they closed the team down, but going Debian makes sense for the standard part.
Nonsense. For an overwhelming majority of users (SES excluded) a standard Linux distribution would provide a workable solution out of the box. Many or most new applications use a browser to access java applications and databases on mid- to upper-size Unix servers or mainframes; they would need little development. Those that don't in many cases are scheduled for replacement or should be; and there is no reason to think development cost for a Linux-based browser would be meaningfully different from Windows. As far as training costs are concerned, It is doubtful that they would exceed the costs of training everyone up to Windows 8.
One of the big problems in the DoD activity in which I work is "microapps" - MS Access databases with little applications, developed outside of IT management control and then abandoned as the originator died, retired, or was promoted to his or her Peter level. We have, I am told, around 5,000 such similar-but-not-identical things, used for everything from tweaking payroll input to fiddling accounting data. Once abandoned by their creators, they fall into disrepair over time due to legal, regulatory, or organizational changes and IT staff are called upon to repair them. As one might expect, they tend to designed rather poorly and with little forethought for maintenance, and come essentially without documentation. A non-MS solution would have conversion and maintenance costs, even if "free", but the long term savings from eliminating Access (and some similar Excel applications) would likely save enough to pay several times over the cost of conversion.
Yes, it's an interesting thought as $600m buys you a lot of custom development. But it can also, as we see regularly around the world, be spent on an endless programme of work that involves thousands of "stakeholders" run massively over budget and over time and then get cancelled by a new government administration who think that a different approach is better.
Doing it yourself can deliver a fantastic result, but don't underestimate the risks involved.
Somehow I doubt that this will be all the DoD pays for their shiny new stuff. Once the extras, ooops - we forgot's, sorry that's not in the contract's and unforeseen situations that will need additional help at the FULL PRICE are taken into account (which we'll never hear about) I have no doubt this deal will come out to be very similar in total cost to what every other MS customer would pay - seat for seat.
Commercial companies are masters of the art of separating government departments from our taxes their money. After all, governments have little incentive to be economical or fiscally prudent (and defence departments even less so) as they can always mug the proles for more tax-cash or sell more bonds that they'll never pay back, if they ever start to run short.
So I'm sure MS are letting the military have their little neener, knowing full-well that their sales bonuses are very, very safe for many years to come.
it is a buy once use three years deal, so its $300 per machine. And I think thats not a real good deal for 2 million machines. ni use comparing it to SMB. the numer of machines is what counts, should and could do much better, iven with MSFT, let alone with FOSS.
...running ships aground, and aiming weapons?
Sorry, I'll pass. Hopefully they will allow some 'other' software on their machines. Why not skip the 'office' requirement and specify LibreOffice (or equivalent) and get it done cheaper. THAT would give a BIG boost to FOSS and make lots of people happy!
Microsoft is probably very happy to get $100/machine for minimal (no?) work. PC vendors already include the cost of W7/W8 in the hardware price, so DoD is probably paying twice. I seriously doubt that Microsoft will give OEMs a discount for shipping machines to DoD.
Win for Microsoft, Lost for American Taxpayers (like me). (*SIGH*)
I seem to recall (not very well) watching an interview with an IT tech working on board a UK Sub (pretty sure it was a sub not a warship). Anyway, the stand-out point for me was when he mentioned having to reboot it periodically ...
Now I freely admit that I don't really remember it terribly well, so if someone can find the vid on youtube or whatever to get the exact quote, please do.
To my eternal shame I was involved in deploying a Windows "solution" to navy submarines. It was a bloody nightmare - sysytem hangs, blue screens, phantom reboots, etc... The application was crap as well, thankfully I had nothing to do with that.
Luckily it was only used for inventory control and was quickly shot out of the torpedo tubes :-)
Windows has been running ships for quite a while now
I rather like that - it is following the same path as SCADA.
Isolated environment, install COTS because someone sells this as the most cost effective option and suddenly they get hooked up to a decent network because they have to work in a collaborative context.
And what happened next with SCADA? Yup.
I'd call it Worries for Warships..
Have you tried using LibreOffice having moved from MS Office? Especially in an environment where lots of others still use MS Office?
My department (all 8 of us) moved over to it for a couple of weeks (we were about to "upgrade" from MSOffice 2003 to 2007 and decided to go for the free option) and we found we'd have to 'touch up' our documents on an MS-Office machine to make sure they looked right. There were useful features missing left, right and centre, our Macros didn't work- if we were just turning out documents that could be PDF-ed (so we know they'll always look right) it may have sufficed, but it just was not useable. In the end it cost more in lost productivity than just buying 'proper' Office. 2007 came with it's own set of challenges, but at least everything /worked/.
Now scale that up to 2,000,000 users and 15 years of custom ways of doing things. Moving to LibreOffice would be phenomenally expensive.
I still use it at home, though.
we found we'd have to 'touch up' our documents on an MS-Office machine to make sure they looked right
I must admit I admire the genius of Microsoft to make people care a lot more about formatting than content, which also explains the very existence and (ab)use of Powerpoint.
Your metrics don't add up, though. Costs don't go up linearly - if you want to do a project like that you first examine needs, hire temp skills so you can run a feasibility pilot and work out where your problems lie.
At that point you can decide to acquire the required skill sets through staffing or training and plan a migration. Your higher costs are offset by license saving in Y1, with no repeat costs in Y2 (so your saving increases year on year), and your efficiency increases as skillsets deepen. In addition, because you actually have a UI which doesn't change every other week you also no longer have staff retraining issues to hang on to the productivity you have achieved. The only issue is that you'll have to spend some money on ODF to OOXML conversion - that team needs support in many ways because MS OOXML isn't as Open a standard as MS pretends it to be..
I helped an organisation do exactly that, successfully on more than one occasion. The trick is having a careful plan and giving it more than 2 weeks.
Our plan was to keep the existing Office software on the PC's for the time being, to open those legacy documents created on it but use LibreOffice to create all new documents and to open them. Most users were very happy with the arrangement and the company reduced it's IT spending over the next two years (and onwards). This paved the way to upgrade most of the departments to Linux two years later. Finance wouldn't budge because the crap software provided by banks for integrating with them, was only designed for windows.
The two companies I'm thinking of no longer need to buy antivirus products or software licenses. They also have reduced their desktop support staff, as no viruses to remove and operating systems simply don't need to be reloaded. The staff are more productive too. There is no rebooting of PC's in the middle of the working day anymore or waiting while updates are applied.
The support is done remotely now and therefore can be achieved on demand as no travelling required.
Since then, they have been spending their I.T. budget on nicer hardware, both out back and on the desktop, making the whole thing even more reliable. Best decision they ever made.
I use Linux at home and nothing could ever persuade me to go back to Windows (I recommend Ubuntu with KDE desktop).
If small organisations can plan this kind of migration, get it right, save money and increase productivity, why can't the US DOD?
Now scale that up to 2,000,000 users and 15 years of custom ways of doing things. Moving to LibreOffice would be phenomenally expensive.
It's the 15 years of custom ways that have led to the expense, though. That is where companies should be looking. Most office documents could be very simple, but are over-complicated by using proprietary features "because they are available".
I remember getting a PowerPoint file once that consisted of one line of text on one page (standard font and colour. No doubt this was the only way the author knew how to send a one-line attachment. Then there is the number of Excel files I've had just so someone can send a 3x3 "table" when it could all have been entered as raw text in the message.
Businesses dig their own holes, and once started they have a shovel in their hands, so reckon that the only thing to do is keep digging...
I work for the US Navy, and we have alot of workstations running Red Hat. The only time I touch Windows at work is to read my email.
.. for which there are also plenty alternatives, but it suggests some Talibandit managed to convince your betters to suffer Exchange instead of a decent groupware package.
I've seen the kind of stage shows MS puts up for military, so I'm not surprised. If they spent 25% of that effort improving the actual product they wouldn't have problems at all, but as far as I can tell, conning people into buying stuff is about the only thing they were genuinely good at.
This announcement sounds suspiciously like one my relatives made after bagging a load of 'discount' watches - - from a cruise they'd been on - that started running slow after a week.
RRP $99, but special to cruise patrons: $20. If the fact they can't be bought anywhere else but on cruises at $20, and have some rich-sounding but obscure brand name doesn't raise alarm bells I don't know what does!
A lot of higher up government officials have relations with large contracting companies like Northrup Grumman and Halliburton, which in turn have financial relations with Microsoft, so by choosing Microsoft they are just making share prices raise which is good for the whole "club". It's really that simple.
Until FOSS can pay out, hardly any want to pay in.
So Microsoft has succeeded in baiting the DOD into expanding it's use of their software which will have to be re-licensed after 3yrs? Then what, Microsoft comes back and enjoys hitting them with huge licensing fees for all the extra computers and devices now running more software than ever? Looks to me like the DOD is out to lunch on basic strategy. I wouldn't brag like they did if I was the DOD, they just got embarrassingly taken advantage of.
That's a crap deal and a waste of taxes. Suddenly announcing that you're upgrading Windows sounds like what happens when an IT department is caught stealing it. The settlement can be paying to upgrade every single x86 machine to a new licensed copy of the full MS software suite, whether it runs Windows or not.
"...Announcing the agreement, the department - the world’s largest employer ..."
This side of the pond, the BBC regularly tells us that the NHS is second only to the PLA [Chinese Army] in terms of the world's biggest employers. Who are these DoD upstarts? ...and what is the truth?
These are probably two different metrics? Total employees != bums @ terminals != gross budget. They're using statistics, so they could mean anything! Presumably a greater proportion of NHS employees have better things to do than sit at their new Win 8 machine and fiddle with their Facebook profile so NHS could well be "smaller" in the general context of the article... I doubt that's anything to do with whatever bizarre manner they've spun this little statoid for this little propaganda belch though.
Being Yanks, my bet's on this particular "largest" being "grossest budget" ;o)
DoD: Largest employer on the planet
Microsoft: Largest software company on the planet
United States economy: WIN WIN
DoD IT jobs: WIN WIN
No one cares about the headline deal value. You have to be pretty naive to believe this is just another standard enterprise deal. The finer details will never become public. DoD will get special treatment.
As for the "my OS is better than your OS" crap; only geeks could give a crap. Get 90% of the business world onto a Linux and malware developers will shift focus. They are a tenacious lot, they will rapidly find security holes in Linux apps too.
United States economy: WIN WIN
Reality check of your reality check: Microsoft ships profits abroad.
As for the better/worse: let's just hope none of this new software is deployed anywhere near theatre. Would you want to be in a war on Patch Tuesday?
There is better software out there, but the most likely users are people that know the Microsoft brand. There is no goodness in trying to retrain people when the turnover rate is high and likely to get higher with downsizing.
The folks that have to mind all the systems will more than likely use whatever they like to get the job(s) done, but for the unwashed masses, Windows is still good enough.
Linux is still alive and well in the military thankfully (Former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff is a part of Red Hat), but it's just not quite ready for everyone yet.
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