Open Innovation: Achieving Open Source Success
Open Innovation: Achieving Open Source Success
Open Source Today
Open source (OS) has been an agent of innovation for the past years. More than 10 years ago, standards were dictated by the bigger technology companies. However, the past decade has reflected a transformation that distinguishes open source as the de facto choice for majority of global organizations. Open source today sets the trends.
Why Should I Consider It?
Open source, characterized by collaboration, communities of developers, and access to source code in relation to software development, and the business models built around it, continue to reshape the IT ecosystem.
OS has grown in popularity because it produces results. Today, its adoption runs deep, wide, and covers all levels of the software stack, from operating system to applications. 1
There are compelling reasons to implement open source. Not surprisingly in today's post-recession recovery climate, the most evident rationale for utilizing OS technology is cost. Companies of all sizes, whether established or just starting up, are in a good position to take advantage of free open source software (OSS) versions.
OS alternatives may not necessarily mean zero cost, but a significant slew of companies worldwide have reported cost savings benefits from their use of such alternatives
A two-year old survey of 274 end-user organizations across the Asia/Pacific, Europe, and North American markets conducted by technology advisory firm Gartner indicated "cost as a prime motivator" for the adoption of OSS. 2 In 2009, which marked months of red ink, enterprise OS adoption surged globally, as a resolve to control costs. "Economic conditions and the need to save money," have driven increased interest in OSS, reported by technology analyst firm The 451 Group in their survey of 1700 organizations worldwide. 3
One of our customers shared their thoughts: "Open source has helped us cut on investments. Not only is open source more mature now, it also has wider support which makes its appeal more impressive than its proprietary counterparts." The customer, a dominant player in various sectors such as power, banking, food, integrated transport & logistics, land development, construction and shipbuilding in the Philippines, has several deployments of OS technologies inside its organization, such as Alfresco for its enterprise-wide knowledge management. 4
While cost remains attractive, flexibility emerges as the primary benefit after open source has been adopted. 3 Having control of source code gives developers the power to customize or build with flexibility.
Obviously, enterprise users succumb to the limitations set by proprietary software applications. Because proprietary software applications are borne from the demands and tailored for the needs of bigger, most often high-paying customers, many other smaller organizations simply put up with software features that do not really solve or help alleviate their business challenges.
As software vendors continue to adapt their application to meet the requirements of their bigger customers, the more the software becomes unusable for other companies.
LogicBlaze, one of our customers and the company behind Apache ServiceMix Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and Apache ActiveMQ messaging, utilized open source tools to build FUSE, which provides a complete runtime environment for service-oriented architecture (SOA). FUSE, distributed as open source, "makes license costs go away and enables its users to deliver economically feasible solutions for their customers."
Fuse's flexibility is even more attractive than its price for LogicBlaze partner eCube Systems, a legacy systems modernization firm in Conroe, Texas. "We felt sort of isolated and alone in dealing with the complexity of the other system," eCube Vice President of Product Management Peter Marquez said. "Open source made more sense. We wanted something with a broader community behind it." 5
The consideration of plenty of companies to move to SOA is also accelerating OS adoption. SOA requires different applications to communicate with each other and since OS components use standard-based implementation and are easily customizable -- it becomes logical for enterprises to use open source.
Open source can be a big help for enterprises to construct strategic intellectual property. It provides better value and increases the pace of innovation by enabling organizations to craft solutions that match their demands.
Any enterprise involved in OSS employs a "collective innovation" mindset that inspires a culture of sharing of ideas and best practices. Transparency, communication, and collaboration by hundreds to thousands of developers, which are characteristics that define OS development, all translate to better software built faster.
Next >> Culture Shift: Silo-based to Community-inspired Development
Full article available here.
1 Forrester: Open Source delivers cost and quality benefits, CNET
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