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Thanks to the economic downturn, it is paving the way for vast experimentation across borders. Open source, or free software as it is known, is catching the limelight and capitalising on the prevailing recessionary trend.
It is rather surprising to find that open source is no longer only a ‘me too’ option among members in the IT fraternity. The reasons? Simple. A few factors are driving the adoption of open source. Software vendors are crushed under their own margin weight and profitability, resulting in increased software prices. CFOs are getting more stringent with budgets and are refraining from allowing any new spend on sourcing additional software or license renewals.
Most senior IT managers echo the fact that they were asked to sustain just keeping the lights on and not plan any new projects which entail new expenses. The obvious choice for Information Technology Decision Makers (ITDMs) was to open up to open source and make it ubiquitous across platforms and work towards using it as a competitive advantage.
Besides cost, many other aspects have drawn these ITDMs towards open source. As one senior IT manager says, “I am constantly amazed at the large selection of high quality distros (distribution source) available to people for free. Essentially, Ubuntu offers a free operating system which has the stability and security at par with or even superior to that of Mac OS X, and can be installed on considerably less expensive computer hardware.” He goes to the extent of saying, “The world of Linux and open source software is fertile ground for new ideas to take off from because the programming code is available for anyone to review and build upon.”
Enthused by the buzz around open source, Team IT Next embarked on the cover feature in the current edition to understand what really inspired ITDMs to opt for open source and discuss how commercially viable it turned out to be.
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