Amazon, Google, Salesforce and Yahoo be driving the force while IBM, Microsoft, HP and SAP joining the crowd. It seems that most of these players are looking at using Open Source components and methodologies in creating the clouds even Microsoft to a certain extend.

Why?

• Lower start-up costs with Open Source tool sets (e.g LINUX, Xen, Hadhoop, Apache etc are some of the tool sets used by providers today)
• Speed to market, by lowering the start-up costs anyone can join the cloud without having to invest heavily
• Opening up the client applications as complete Open Source products, e.g: Goolge Android)
• Allowing community to build what they want and use the cloud infrastructure, this extend what one company can do

We all know that Open Source was a disruptive development and business model. If the cloud computing to accelerate and innovate I believe Open Source needs to pay a key role in all areas of the Cloud.

After all ‘Clouds are FREE’ no one person owns them, and yes it is above us all.

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Join us for a webinar next Tuesday, Building Reports with Jaspersoft, as we demonstrate how Jaspersoft can deliver reporting for everyone.

I am also happy to hear from others and possibly even create a Skype cast to have an informal discussion on open source business models and what their views are? If you are interested please get in touch with me via linkedin or kanchana at fossmart.net so that we can sort-out a time to discuss.

MuleSource recently announced the general availability of Mule Galaxy Enterprise, the first open source SOA governance platform with integrated registry and repository.

Full arcticle: http://blogs.zdnet.com/service-oriented/?p=1145

Register Today for this upcoming Webinar

Reasonably good candidates:

CRM: Sugarcrm
ERP: OpenBravo and Compiere
BI: Pentaho and JasperIntelligence
ECM: Alfresco
Collaboration: ???
Messaging & Communication: Zimbra, Scalix, and OBM

Looking forward for your comments.

Kanchana Wickremasinghe, FOSSMART Pty Ltd.

Open source technologies can be traced back to the late 1970s when Richard Stallman, a former programmer at MIT A1 Laboratories, launched the GNU Project and Free Software Foundation. The ultimate goal of the GNU project was to produce a free operating system. Since then there has been some significant GNU projects such as Apache (a www Server), Perl (interpreted program language) Mozilla (a www browser) and Linux open source operating systems supported by companies such as Redhat Corporation.

Today’s commercial information system architectures are complex in nature with many commercial vendors providing solutions in the areas of document management, company intranet portals, knowledge management, incident tracking, business intelligent reporting just to name a few. In many of these cases, you will be able to find open source equivalents that provide similar functionality.

There is several advantages in using open source solutions, these can be categorised into two major benefits (1) cost advantages (2) operational and functional advantages. Open source solutions to a large extent do not possess any significant license implications however you would be utilising a subscription based costing model thereby reducing upfront costs. From a operational and functional aspect these solutions are based on the LAMP application stack (Linux Apache MySQL and PHP) which are proven and stable/reliable platforms. Secondly, if an organisation is satisfied with the functionality of the open source solution, the upgrade path is determined by the organisation and not pushed by a third party vendor organisation. In most cases, the upgrade of commercial information system solutions is a expensive and taxing exercise which most small to medium (SME) business do not possess the time or money to undertake.

Over the last few years, there has been some key acquisitions of open source companies, including Sun Microsystems purchase of MySQL for a USD $1 Billion, Yahoo’s acquisition of Zimbra for USD $350 Million, Microsoft’s purchase of SpringSource for an undisclosed amount and Oracle Corporation’s purchase of Sleepycat. This trend is supported by a leading consultancy organisations Gartner who predict that by 2012, 80 percent of all commercial software will include elements of open source technology. Gartner conclude by saying that “Many open sourced technologies are mature, stable and well supported. They provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership and increase returns on investment” (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-9863802-16.html).

Traditionally, one of the key barrier to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) adopting open source technology solutions has been due to the lack of support in implementing open source solutions. However, there are now many organisations which assist companies to translate their information technology landscape to utilise open source technology solutions. Open source technology solutions have also matured significantly during the last few years and can comfortably provide an effective alternative to commercial applications.

Open source technologies are particularly useful for companies that are seeking to re-structure their business processing. The advent of the internet has triggered the commercial market place for many companies to be global. Many SME’s are finding that with along with their global marketing exposure, certain business processes such as inventory management, product cataloguing accounting practices and logistics all require process improvement to compete in a competitive market. Open source solutions such as SugarCRM (open source customer relationship management application), OpenPro Inventory management software, and SQL Ledger (an double entry Enterprise Resource Planning software) provide solutions to improve these processes.

Any SME wishing to incorporate open-source technologies into their information system landscape should seek and partner with an open source solution vendor who can assist them in their open source journey.

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.

Many thanks for the interest in the group so far. I am already talking to like minded Open Source people, who are happy to contribute, discuss, write blogs etc. This is great stuff. Yes there is still a quite a bit of work I need to get done including creating a logo for the group. Our graphics designer is on to it. I will share with the current members of the group before making it formal :-).

I am sure we will get there and have a great blog about Enterprise Open Source !!

Thanks again for the Support.

kindest regards,

Kanchana