Report Review: Open Source in the Enterprise

p. Last week, O’Reilly Radar released their latest report, “Open Source in the Enterprise”:http://radar.oreilly.com/research/os-enterprise-report.html. We don’t usually review reports on DevZone but this one struck a chord.

p. It’s not often that a report generates this much excitement but “Open Source in the Enterprise” says a lot of what needs to be said to C-Levels considering making the jump to Open Source.

p. The report outlines 6 characteristics of open source and 6 factors that are driving businesses to consider open source. For most DevZone readers, none of the 6 characteristics of open source are foreign. Among them, the one that stands out is “Community”.

bq. One of the most important characteristics of open source, and the foundation for successful open source projects, is community. Community is the combined pool of product developers and users; in essence, everyone concerned with a product. Free and honest communication is typical of community, with many peer user interactions typical of a vibrant community.

p. One of the drivers they discussed was “Breaking Vendor Lock-in”. This is an important topic for many business as budget tighten and IT departments are exhorted to “do more with less”.

bq. One significant disadvantage of using proprietary software
products is that their licensing conditions lead to vendor lock-in. Because one company holds the copyright
and distributes the product under a restrictive license, usually without source code, customers are limited to a single provider.

p. The report presents a case study for each of the drivers to illustrate how a company has overcome that particular problem using open source.

p. The final section of the report is dedicated to showing open source adoption in corporations by analyzing job postings. They admit up front that this is an imperfect measure but because many companies are hesitant to admit to the use of open source, it is one of the only metrics.

p. The report retails for $399 individually or $995 for a site license and can be ordered on the “O’Reilly Radar web site”:http://radar.oreilly.com/. This report is a must read for anyone at the Director level and above that is involved in IT purchasing or budgets.