| By Bertrand Diard |
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| February 28, 2008 06:15 AM EST |
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10,620 |
Advantage #4 : InteroperabilityFor years, interoperability has been one of the main challenges that faced software users. Proprietary solutions, which have been developed by isolated teams to answer specific needs, have not been designed to share, dialog, and collaborate. As a result, companies spend a lot of time and money in making proprietary solutions communicate. In the rare instances where interoperability occurs, standards play a large role. Vendors need to alter their line of thinking and shift from locking-in users with proprietary specificities to opening up their solutions to facilitate integration into information systems.
This need for interoperability was the founding principle of the Open Solutions Alliance, a consortium of vendors of open source solutions, whose goal is to promote interoperability as a way to deploy more broadly open solutions in enterprises.
Advantage #5: A Massive Adoption by Students
Open source solutions are available more and more in engineering schools and universities. In addition to the volunteer and budgetary aspects, which are widely viewed as key development factors of open source, relationships with other university associations strengthens the student’s commitment to this type of technology. This reflects a new reality: Engineers around the world dream of software independence, and curriculums include many technical classes that are based on expert usage of IT tools promoting open source offerings. Students appreciate the fact that they are able to see “under the hood,” further argument in support of free technologies.
Miscellaneous
Many other advantages are offered to open source users. The community spirit is revered. We have already outlined the exchanges on technical issues (support) between vendors and the community. These exchanges facilitate the dialog about the global quality of solutions. Another valuable community tool is the direct exchange between users. Professionals from various sectors, countries, and cultural backgrounds are able to discuss and share their points of view, something proprietary editors rarely have the resources to monitor within their customer base.
Another advantage often cited is the reduction of the strain on resources. Indeed, open source solutions do not generally need high-performance systems to deliver great performance, but they can contribute to leveraging existing systems. This is in addition to the already analyzed economical advantages.
And the Drawbacks?
The main drawbacks that are commonly linked with open source solutions are slowly disappearing. Traditional arguments include its integration in critical environments, the lack of specialized resources and questions regarding the total cost of ownership. The main argument in the past has been the sustainability of open source. Today, however, the natural evolution of successful open solutions, the technical support benefits from well-established structures in addition to successful service providers that have set a precedent for reliability and longevity have changed these perceptions. Besides, as we have seen, open source editors are receiving increasing support from private investors and venture capital.
The Future
The future looks bright. Open source software will continue to improve as the community keeps growing. Open source is entrenched in companies, government agencies, non-profit organizations – with even more widespread adoption on the horizon. In less than five years, many open source companies have moved from marginal positions to being some of the most established players alongside prestigious companies and institutions.
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