With over 30 years of IT experience, Beyer Consulting is committed to providing expert Linux solutions and support on System z. The dark side of open and inexpensive scale-out x86 architectures is server sprawl — the proliferation of servers with relatively low utilization rates. Scaling out is simple: When you need to process higher volumes of production data, you simply spawn new virtual machines (VMs), production application servers, new database servers, storage, etc. However, each new server must be properly provisioned with new software licenses, so licensing costs scale fairly linearly, and the proliferation of small servers increases the administration burden. As applications scale out to meet increased business demand, the cumulative effect of sprawl takes its toll on the IT budget in terms of additional complexity, staff, floor space and electricity. Linux provides the flexibility, choice, and an attractive total cost of ownership that can benefit any IT organization. Linux benefits from community innovation that constantly develops and integrates leading-edge technologies and best practices into the operating system.