OSBC focus turns to best practices for open-source adoption
March 18, 2010 —
(Page 1 of 2)
Ask not what open-source software can do for you, but what you can do to ensure you’re using open-source software wisely and securely.
That was the message among speakers and attendees throughout the week at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco, where the focus was on best practices for using open-source software inside of large businesses.
Jeffrey Hammond, principal analyst at Forrester, asserted that 2009 was a watershed year for open source in enterprises. In 2008, he said, most of the questions he received from customers were about the careful adoption of open source. Those questions vanished last year, replaced by questions about mobile development. This, he said, is an indication that businesses finally understand open source and feel comfortable using it.
Hammond said that developers have long driven the adoption of open-source software in enterprises. He also said that this has resulted in a profound shift in how companies purchase software for development use.
“What's happening is we're seeing the move in enterprise software from a price-skimming model (where companies make lots of money, but have very few customers) to a price-penetration model, where it is easy to acquire, easy to install, and it becomes a community,” said Hammond.
This shift is the direct result of licensing woes, he said. If developers are using all of their paid-for licenses in production and they need to spin up a new server to meet demand, they have to go through the bureaucratic purchasing processes of their own organizations, and those of their vendors, to legally bring that new server online.
When it could take as long as eight weeks to fulfill a purchase order for software, it often takes but 15 minutes to download an open-source alternative, so developers will usually choose the latter, said Hammond.
Hammond also advocated the use of internal repositories for storing approved open-source code. “Maintaining a repository of accepted open-source software components is better than letting developers go out there and use anything they can find,” he said.
Related Search Term(s): open source
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/34210
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
From the Editors: Node.js is unruly, but that’s where the fun is
The time to get involved with Node.js is now; Hadoop is about to break its own barriers
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Zeichick’s Take: Looking for the best of the best of the best
It's time once again for readers to send in nominees for the SD Times 100
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
|
|
Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions
|
Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
|
|
RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
|
|
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
|
|
Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
|
The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing
Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...
|
|
Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic
As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...
|
|
Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank
One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...
|
|
Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications
Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...
|