Enterprises Putting a Toe in Open Source Waters are Discovering a Sea of Benefits

Featured Article By James Falkner, Community Manager,Liferay

The arrival of open source development for business applications in recent years is responsible for bringing a host of innovative products to market, as well as introducing new flexibility and cost savings. More than just “free software,” open source comprises a culture and a way of doing business, offering freedom and benefits with which closed code, proprietary software struggles to compete. The sharing of source code for purposes of open collaboration and free distribution has been practiced for some time, of course, but only in the last decade has open source established its presence in mainstream IT. Organizations like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Amazon, NASA, many government entities, and some of the world’s leading banking institutions have successfully adopted open source for their enterprise needs, a trend that will continue.

While countless world-class companies have succeeded with open source solutions, the open source projects that thrive best in corporate environments are the ones developed by established vendors and dedicated teams. Dependable open source vendors deliver security and insurance while still representing profound cost savings over proprietary development. Businesses investigating their options may find value and simplicity in software subscription and support packages that include packaging, distribution, product guarantees, additional rights, services, and other enterprise-friendly features. For all these benefits, though, enterprises looking into open source solutions for the first time need to make sure their expectations for what open source entails matches what they’ll be getting, and what they’ll be able to accomplish with the software. More on that in a bit.

A direct benefit of open source software is the freedom it provides an enterprise. The fact that open source requires zero to small initial licensing costs creates freedom in an enterprise’s budget. Open source flexibility gives technical staffs the freedom to design their own IT stacks and portfolios customized for the tasks at hand. This adaptability and quality of fit represents better capabilities, further cost savings, and lower risk versus proprietary, one-size-fits-all software. Due to open accessibility of product information from documentation to code, open source professional services operate on a level competitive playing field and are pressed by market forces to be more affordable. Whereas purchasers of proprietary software are often at the mercy of vendor lock-in and associated periodic upgrade costs, open source features the freedom to maneuver. Because open source coding adheres to open standards, most open source software is compatible with a vast selection of products founded upon comparable industry standards, whether open source or proprietary and irrespective of vendor. With closed source products, compatibility is often purposefully limited to technologies from the same vendor, coercing costly and choiceless purchases of entire product suites and specific integrations. In comparison, open source offers the freedom to decide upon products based on genuine competitive criteria: features, preferences, and performance.

Open source can have additional advantages in terms of cost savings and safety. The interoperability of open source allows for reduced budget put toward maintenance, as the software can work on older hardware while maintaining quality performance. Fewer hardware upgrades and longer uptimes mean less system administrator labor and costs. The auditability of open source makes it possible to guarantee it is spyware and virus-free; the open source community will often run their own audits. Open source code is safe from the whims and business moves of vendors, as it lives within its supporting community even as vendors come and go. Because open source culture is collaborative, the products are more user-oriented, respecting user feedback and even inviting users to join in product development. As a result, products are lean and keenly responsive to users’ demands, with speedy fixes and nimble updates. For the same reasons, potential vulnerabilities are handled swiftly with more eyes watching for them. Among security experts, it’s a known fact that open source’s visibility leads to greater security.

One area, though, where a company considering software should take care is with differences between the licensed Enterprise Editions of software as opposed to their completely open source Community releases. Some software companies do all they can to ensure that purchased Enterprise Editions still include the full benefits of open source, while some other vendors might market software as open source while placing it under a proprietary commercial license. Questions to investigate before making such a purchase include:

-What is the difference between the open source version and the Enterprise Edition, in terms of software license? If it is a commercial/proprietary license, do you get access to the source code (e.g. for debugging or inspection)?
-If you decide not to renew your subscription, can you still use the software?
-What happens if the company becomes insolvent? Even if you have the source, can you maintain and update it yourself or through your community?
-Are there limitations to the Community Edition that effectively force any business to buy the Enterprise Edition?

Possibly the greatest asset of true open source for enterprise can be in choosing a project backed by a healthy community. An open source project with a healthy ecosystem of users, companies, customers and collaborators can grow much faster than one that does not, and much faster than a proprietary product with the same level of purchased resources. When evaluating an open source project, enterprises should weigh these criteria:

-What are the goals of the project leaders, and do they mesh with the long-term investment the enterprise will be making?

-How has the project evolved, and is it being actively maintained and developed?

-How long has the project been around?

-How many people and organizations are using the project, and do they suggest a good fit for the enterprise?

-Is the project supported by trustworthy companies? Will support or services be available in the future?

If the project community is healthy and active, it will provide the full advantages of open source development. Open source’s evolution is ongoing, but its role in the enterprise is stronger now than ever before. Businesses would be smart to take advantage.

James Falkner is the Community Manager at Liferay, an enterprise open source portal and collaboration software company.