[COLUG] Musing on Training

[Joshua.Kramer]

Hello All,

Here is a general musing on training.  I've done this to start a 
discussion related to the topic; please add your own observations and 
comment on mine.

Assumption: Business with 100-500 employees, big enough to have its own 
internal IT "person" or department.  This business may not be located in 
the city where it's relatively easy to find Linux-experienced folks.

Observation #1: One of the common and most valid points of objection 
supporting business avoiding Linux is the dearth of admins who know how to 
use it.

Observation #2: Relatively speaking, training isn't that expensive. [1,2]

Observation #3: Great savings can be gained by using Linux instead of 
Windows.

Ergo, companies are willing to sacrifice large savings later to avoid a
small cost now.  Now let's examine the counter-observations:

Counter-Observation #1, on Risk: Even if training is inexpensive now, 
there is a risk because if the person we hire and train today gets hit 
tomorrow by a bus (or better job), this will leave us dry during the 
period of hiring a new admin and training that admin.

Counter-Observation #2: Psychological boundaries exist.  The newly-minted 
MCSE who just wasted $25K on ComputerTraining.com won't be open to 
learning Linux, or will be dumbfounded at the paradigm shift involved.

The question is, how do we get over the Counter-Observations?

Notes:

1. As seen here:
    https://www.redhat.com/training/elearning/catalog/topic/rh_linux.html

2. If you figure the cost of one month's salary/benes at $60k/yr and
    add the cost of training noted above, I assume approximately $6-8k.
    If you consider this cost in comparison to the increased costs of
    Windows infrastructure, it is small.

What other thoughts does everyone have about this?

Cheers,
-J