At the end of October 2005, Centeris Corp (a company currently with 30 employees, headquartered in Washington, USA) announced the beta version of Likewise software, enabling Windows network administrators to manage Linux servers effectively.
Centeris began developing Likewise in October 2004. A few months later, they received a $5.35 million investment from venture capital firm Ignition Partners LLC.
According to Centeris, Likewise 1.0 is aimed at IT Directors in medium and large enterprises who are “struggling” to manage both Windows and Linux servers. The company’s President and CEO stated that Centeris would allow Linux servers to have a “foothold” in Windows networks.
With Likewise, system administrators can connect Linux servers to Microsoft’s Active Directory, enabling them to manage and control Linux servers through Likewise or Microsoft Management Console.
Centeris has tested this beta version with around 20 users, including video equipment manufacturer Omneon Video Networks Inc. in California (USA). The IT managers there rated Likewise highly, stating that this software would encourage them to deploy more Linux servers to save costs.
According to Gartner Inc., there are currently about 1.4 million Linux servers, and this number is expected to reach approximately 2.4 million by 2010. However, this growth rate could be accelerated with the help of software manufacturers working on interoperability between Windows and Linux, such as Centeris, Centrify Corp., and Vintela Inc. (now a subsidiary of Quest Software Inc.).
Both Novell (owner of SUSE Linux) and IBM have also tested Likewise, and the software has met their needs effectively.
Centeris hopes to officially announce the final version of Likewise in December 2005. A perpetual license for each managed server will cost $350. The company also plans to offer support for Likewise, though the pricing for these services has yet to be determined.
The company intends to release part of Likewise’s source code to the open-source community by the end of 2005, providing support for these code segments. They are currently negotiating to have Likewise bundled with Linux operating system sales.
