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Open source is certainly hot
among the tech community, but if you mention the concept to IT leaders
in the enterprise environment, they tend to immediately cringe. The
inference being that "free stuff" can't possibly match the quality of
products you pay for -- and the "DIY approach" is not manageable or
secure enough for large enterprises. This kind of rash write-off
plainly misses the mark!
Why open source is ready for the enterprise: beyond free stuff
Open source is certainly hot
among the tech community, but if you mention the concept to IT leaders
in the enterprise environment, they tend to immediately cringe. The
inference being that "free stuff" can't possibly match the quality of
products you pay for -- and the "DIY approach" is not manageable or
secure enough for large enterprises. This kind of rash write-off
plainly misses the mark!
What open source actually
offers is flexibility, choice, and a new pricing model that allows
enterprises to pay for computing systems at the point where they reap
value from them. Compare that with the proprietary world in which
customers pay in advance for the privilege of using the computing
system. Thus, the move to an open source model significantly increases
value for vendors and enterprise customers alike. And the shift may be
much more subtle than anticipated.
Beyond Free Stuff
A
very simplistic view of the open source model is "getting stuff for
free." Naturally, nothing is entirely for free. When software is put
into production, there are always costs for updates, hardware fixes,
software patches, training staff, new features and so on. People often
stumble into the erroneous belief that "open source" somehow makes
these costs disappear. Alas, no. The distinction is that that the open
source model allows managers to freely select which costs their
organization will bear and which ones they're willing to outsource. In
open source, everything is without charge to someone, but nothing is
without charge to everyone: it depends on the skills you have in-house
and the ones you need to buy in.
The most
significant transformation, therefore, is not that enterprises will
cease to pay for IT - although costs are certainly reduced with the
open source model through the transparency of the process -- but rather
that enterprises will be making value-based investments in IT on their
own terms.
Imagine it in this manner: Back in what
I refer to as the "software market 2.0," vendors created systems or
applications and monetized them at the point of sale. Yet since the
Internet has revolutionized connectivity and collaboration, there's
been a gradual shift in the way individuals and companies utilize IT.
They no longer want single, shrink-wrapped solutions, but rather the
liberty to pick and choose from the great variety of features and
options they know exist out there somewhere in the Internet universe.
In
the ensuing "software market 3.0" world, programs are assembled,
prepared and deployed in an open forum, with users providing input
along the way. Monetization happens at the other end -- when the
software is put into production.
In the old world,
if you couldn't afford a system, you couldn't use it. Today, the right
to use the software is free. Enterprises can evaluate a variety of
products -- and assemble the pieces of their own choosing -- to build
the ultimate customized solution at the right price. They have the
freedom to determine exactly which products and services are required
to make their deployments succeed.
Simply put, open
source essentially introduces an alternative pricing model that places
enterprises in control of costs, rather than being at the mercy of
vendors.
Lessons from Solaris
Sun's
open source initiative provides an ideal example. Sun has opened up its
Solaris Operating System development to the community, and is gradually
shifting its whole portfolio over to a no-charge right-to-use model.
(Notably, Sun has in fact contributed more lines of code to the open
source community than any other organization, including UC Berkeley.)
Sun has even started making the source code for the Sun SPARC
microprocessor architecture available as open source.
Any organization with the
requisite skills and staff can contribute to the ongoing creation of
the OS by participating in the OpenSolaris community. Sun guides the
community by publishing a roadmap, which allows developers to predict
where the technology is headed, for more informed planning and
decision-making.
Why open up our code? Because Sun
believes in the power of an interactive and completely transparent
development model, which results in better-tested software, better
recommendations (with users actually looking into the code), better
peer exchange of experiences -- positive and negative -- and
elimination of the "gatekeeping function" by vendors.
In addition, we understand that
customers expect and even demand choice and flexibility in this 3.0
open-forum market. They prefer to "see inside the machine" whenever
possible.
You may wonder, what is Sun's economic incentive to
support open source? It's a simple equation: By increasing the number
of people who can obtain our software, we increase the number of
deployments, and thus increase the base of customers likely willing to
pay for builds and services from Sun.
If your
organization were considering a departmental database, for example, you
presumably might download Sun's Solaris OS for completely free, as
opposed to opting for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which would cost you
money. After that, it's very likely you'll decide to move forward with
Solaris. Our wager has been that since we have so much expertise on
Solaris, customers would be willing to pay us to participate in the
community on their behalf and provide them some mix of training,
updates and patches, product support, documentation, legal
indemnification and/or professional services. Our
wager has paid off. Since offering Solaris for free, our installed base
has soared to nearly six million registered licenses -- many of them
employing competitive hardware.
Essentially this means that
customers can now tailor their own business model: if they wish to
build and service everything themselves, they can. Or if they desire
assistance throughout the entire process, they can acquire it from the
experts at Sun (or other vendor). We've discovered that most customers
fancy something in-between: a modest amount of assistance for a modest
and affordable price. (Sun charges a simple flat fee based on size of
implementation).
Triple-Win Scenario
When
code and development plans are disseminated, the resulting co-existence
of community, commercial customers and vendors translates into a
win-win-win situation. The community offers valuable input to
development and IT deployers gain a world of flexibility and choice in
addition to cost savings.
This is the essence of
open source, marking the definitive demise of the one-size-fits-all
era. Enter instead the Participation Age, Sun's term for this new era
in which an open and competitive network fuels growing opportunities
for everyone.
Some people are inclined to look
upon open source as end in itself -- a major shift to a "new paradigm."
In reality, it's nothing more than an improved means towards an end:
businesses paying for computing systems at the moment when their value
is unfurled. Thus, opting for open source does not mean losing control.
On the contrary, it puts enterprises in the driver's seat, starting
with the liberty to independently select the hardware, applications and
software they desire. This may all be free-of-charge, or some
components may be existing hardware or other datacenter resources. When
the solution is production-ready, the enterprise can choose with whom
to contract for which services and to what extent -- for updates,
security, fast-response support, or directed product development, as
they please.
In Sun's case, we've found that customers are
particularly pleased to be able to acquire UNIX for hardware they
already own. This constitutes a win for our competitors as well,
incidentally, because their customers no longer suffer as they pull
away from their own in-house UNIX offerings.
Otherwise, we see Sun's
comprehensive commitment to open source as a competitive challenge,
throwing down the gauntlet to proprietary software. Presumably, today's
customers are asking themselves, "Why should I pay upfront? Why
shouldn't I have more choice?"
Meanwhile,
enterprises considering open source can take a deep breath and release
their anxiety over perceived risk. The only heightened risk with open
source occurs if an organization believes it can take on an
implementation entirely unassisted, and perhaps discovers too late that
this is not the case. Fortunately, enterprise IT managers are savvy
enough to know their limitations, and realize that certain types of
crucial support are obligatory.
What's fascinating is that
employing commercial open source does not necessarily represent the
great revolution anticipated. In reality, it's working out to be only a
small change, because most enterprises still prefer to rely on
competent vendors to act on their behalf in open source communities
rather than trying to build, develop, and support custom applications
wholly on their own.
So what of business as usual?
From our side, Sun continues to invest in Solaris. Only now this is
carried out in the open community rather than behind closed laboratory
doors. What has changed is the way our customers experience the process
of an implementation from beginning to end. Rather than paying us up
front, they invest first when the true value of the solution is
delivered. Sun believes this is the most logical -- and fair -- way to
conduct business in the Participation Age.
Simon Phipps is chief open source officer at Sun Microsystems.
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