Cybersource CEO Con Zymaris also detailed a Unix to Linux migration which took place at Melbourne's Chisholm Education College which has some 37,000 students.

The main backend was Oracle 8i on HP-UX, the hardware cost was set to quadruple and adding necessary disks would cost around A$50,000 (US$35,439).

"The school didn't want to lose functionality and decided Windows just wouldn't cut the mustard," Zymaris said. "It is now running Novell SuSE 8 for core applications including payroll. The school had worked with Novell so the migration was relatively painless and was done overnight."

Zymaris said a big plus for Chisholm was the ability to standardize hardware suppliers as the existing system's maintenance was "quite substantial" at A$360,000 for three years.

"The new cost is A$17,000 over three years so the ROI was nine months," he said.