Summary

For small-sized to medium-sized businesses, the differences between the different Unix versions can be difficult to understand. Between Oracle Solaris, IBM AIX, and HP-UX, the differences are seen, as the servers are scaled to support tens to thousands of terabytes of data, with thousands of concurrent users. Each platform offers its own architectures, which the analogy for most is like trying to choose between different mobile phone carriers. Each is very different, no two plans can be easily compared, but each claims to offer the best capabilities, scale the most while offering the best price for doing so.

When comparing Unix to Windows, the questions raised have to cover the skill set at the business, the budget, the number of users, and the commercial requirements. Windows is best known as an environment that is designed for small-sized to medium-sized businesses. Unix has a reputation for scaling to very large database sizes and concurrent users. With the latest versions of Windows...