By Kanchana Wickremasinghe, originally published with Global Enterprise Architecture Organization (GEAO)
It is a fact that Open Source is moving into the Enterprise. In Open Source, the methodologies, the community and the licensing model govern how open source software and solutions are treated. These factors impact on how an Enterprise’s IT environments operate now and in the future. Therefore it is becoming important for the Enterprise to
consider these factors in creating their own open source strategy.
Importance of an Open Source Strategy
The Enterprise’s IT environments usually covers the spectrum of legacy systems to ne, “green field systems. In such a complex environment it is therefore important for an Enterprise to carefully consider how Open Source fits within their own IT environment. An Open Source Strategy can help to define these for an enterprise.
Is Open Source is all about Source Code?
Open Source is not just about source code; it is more than just code. It is a methodology for developing high quality software, obtaining more favourable licensing and getting support from multiple vendors.
Steps in creating an Open Source Strategy?
Formulate a Policy
In doing this you will want to check off these points:
product quality, functionality, security and support have been evaluated and approved by the manager responsible for the services or activities that will incorporate the Open Source Software product;
the license has been reviewed by your legal team and classified as acceptable for its intended use, whether internal or commercial;
the cost of commercial support is considered against your support capabilities, risks of liability or loss of intellectual property, and your ability to respond quickly to resolve problems;
to preserve intellectual property rights, Open Source code is labeled as such, and if appropriate separated from your code according to the terms of the license;
timely application of updates is assured to minimize risk of breach of security or malfunction.
Outline business benefits
Obviously any strategy these days needs a business case, so as you start to outline the business benefits, consider these areas:
- low cost of acquisition;
- competitive pricing of support;
- reduced obsolescence: open standards enable flexibility and choice and reduce refresh costs;
- promotion of software quality through community governance;
- increased development productivity through re-use of developed and tested code, and access to a world-wide, external development community;
- accelerated time to market supports rapid development and deployment of new capabilities;
- availability of products where vendors may not anticipate a return of investment
Domain to product matching
Identify each of the technology domains in your Enterprise and match Open Source products to them. This should integrate with or at least have a traceability to your Enterprise Architecture Framework. Here is one way to categorise the domains:
- Application Platform
- Development (e.g. Eclipse)
- Productivity (e.g. OpenOffice)
- Data Suites (e.g. MySQL, EnterpriseDB, Ingres)
- Application Server (e.g. JBOSS, Tomcat)
- Infrastructure Platform
- Management and Monitoring (e.g. Nagios, Hyperic, GroundWork)
- Security (e.g. OpenSSH, Snort)
- Directory (e.g.OpenLDAP, Fedora Directory Server)
- Operating System (e.g. LINUX)
What is Next?
- Align your new Open Source Strategy with your IT Strategy and Architecture
- Foster an Open Source friendly environment
- Use products from the preferred domain with vendor support
Final Notes
Linux was one of the key early projects that started fuelling the Open Source movement. Now there are over 100,000 open source projects. Not all of them will be successful or get noticed in the realm of Enterprise. As this fast moving area of IT evolves it is critical to review your strategy frequently so that it is current and your grounds for selecting and processing open source solutions for your Enterprise are still justified.
Open Source is here to stay, so if you don’t have a strategy now, may be it is time to start thinking about creating one.