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Open Source Penetration In The Enterprise
Velan Thillairajah
Thursday, June 26, 2008
DESPITE THE SOMETIMES-GRANDIOSE CLAIMS about open source software creating entirely new ways of developing and using technology, enterprises are following a traditional path in the adoption of open source offerings similar to the acceptance of any new technology. There are two key contributing factors to growing confidence in any new technology: familiarity and proliferation. Open-source products are now widely used across a variety of academic and business fields. The incredible variety and number of implementation projects has greatly minimized uncertainty. In response to customer requests and evident market trends, many top-tier vendors now support open-source products. IBM has probably the strongest stance on the Linux development. “Stable, secure, scalable and powerful, Linux is one of the cornerstones of the on-demand operating environment,” as noted on their website. There are many examples, from Oracle’s database products and ATI’s graphics card drivers being available for the Linux OS, to Intel and Dell validating and driving the momentum. This type of support provides strong endorsement for the open-source model. The article highlights some observations on the corporate use of open source developed products and tools as viewed by one software service provider.

Initial candidates for the use of open-source technologies are the usual suspects for testing any new tools. Low-risk internal projects and proofs of concept validate the use of open source within corporate infrastructures. These projects may only incorporate open source tools as a single component, may use a combination of COTS and open source, or may be a comprehensive implementation based on open source technologies. Most Java projects our consulting firm has worked on have used some open source module, either directly or indirectly. (Many come from the Apache Software foundation.)

There are various levels of penetration. As a quick example, the Apache web server has become an easy entry choice for Web sites. Tomcat can act as a strong servlet engine and JBoss can step in for EJB oriented functions. Using an Intel based Linux platform, one can choose to run a well known RDBMS (or even an Open source database like MySQL) in conjunction with other applications. Programmers have tools like Eclipse, CVS, and ANT to simplify and manage the development and support process. Some components of the open source community are mature and others are just coming into being. This example highlights Java development, but there are numerous open source tools for other languages. There are several Apache tools built for C as an example.

The biggest benefit for a software developer is the access to countless other developers around the world to solve a problem or find a workaround to a bug. Corporations' desire for tremendous cost savings in licensing and support is a key driver leading them to open source software. In the past a vendor/integrator sales person could count on the backup and/or redundancy requirements of an application generating additional sales. Now, due to cost considerations, it's almost a deal killer in forcing companies to evaluate lower cost open source alternatives when HW/SW estimates need to be doubled or tripled for the necessary coverage or Service Level Agreements (SLA).

Some sample real life implementations:
• The Quality Assurance (QA) group within an online/ecommerce company migrated all configuration management and testing tools from Solaris to Linux to reduce hardware and software costs. This was predominantly only an OS change and not an application change. They were already using Apache for their web servers.
• Legacy ancillary production service upgraded using Linux and MySQL versus brand name UNIX and RDBMS. Costs decreased significantly due to type of platform (Intel based Linux vs. Solaris) and software licenses (Oracle vs. MySQL) required. The engineering group’s ability to develop and demonstrate scalability was also a key factor in the decision process.
• An online service provider minimizes costs by hosting internal application on Intel based Linux boxes. They have Apache web servers, Tomcat for the servlet engine with Sybase as their database to conform to their corporate db requirement.

As noted in a BusinessWeek article, “Companies of all sizes, including Morgan Stanley, DaimlerChrysler and E*Trade Group, are realizing big cost savings by switching from proprietary operating systems to Linux.” Open-source computing is here to stay. Linux now owns 13.7% of the $50.9 billion server market and is expected to increase its share to 25.2% in 2006, according to research cited by the magazine. More than one-third of all large corporations have already implemented Linux to some extent.

Service providers and system integrators have to consider these alternatives to maximize the profitability of the available but limited client budgets. Clients are specifically requesting these kinds of solutions in their RFPs and informal solicitations to minimize their investment on hardware, software and maintenance costs.

Gartner, Meta, Forrester and others have multiple research and analyst activities centered on open source. A quick Gartner research example being “A Linux/Open-Source Best-Practices Guide: The OS.” As well as noting “Businesses are coming to regard Linux as a worthy alternative to UNIX and Windows. In response, vendors are beefing up Linux, addressing performance, migration, support and security issues,” as the heading for another paper. These provide a glimpse of the open source acceptance level.

As we have witnessed repeatedly over time, the technical and business world adapts to any proliferating device, service, software and so on by finding ways to leverage it for economic gain. Based on the analyst community coverage, vendor support and corporate adoption, we are clearly in the beginning to midst of the leveraging and profit cycle.

There are two caveats to bear in mind. First, open source software is usually provided as-is and without warranty. Therefore support may not be at the level that corporate customers have come to expect. Second, legal issues concerning intellectual property must be addressed properly depending on expected use. Open source software projects use various licenses (public domain, copyleft, and so on) with differing implications. For example, some require that any project developed using them must also be open source. Others are more amenable to business use, and simply require that their documentation accompany any software that ships with them. Neither of these issues represents an enormous hurdle. Sometimes a company will assume support responsibilities, like Red Hat. Much of the time, particularly with a mature, widely known product, the development community will provide more than enough support. Similarly, any significant project will entail careful scrutiny of contracts—in this respect, open source is no different from making agreements with COTS or other vendors.

An excellent example of the intellectual property impact was brought to light with the SCO potential infringement in the use of proprietary code embedded in General Public License programs. Though unexpected, these activities will help to clarify and advance the understanding of intellectual property and licensing of open source programs and derivatives.

Conclusion: Open-source technologies are now mature enough to demand consideration as viable alternatives to commercial products. Their prevalence and cost factors make them practical choices for new development projects. Their perceived and real value to the enterprise will continue to fuel their adoption.

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