Is open source a bubble ready to burst?
Published: 07 Nov 2005 15:30 GMT
...every one of them is an experiment," said Andy Astor, chief executive of EnterpriseDB, a database software maker that recently received funding. "A support-only [revenue model] like JBoss has is a risky model."
Instead of charging an annual support service fee on a free product as many companies do, EnterpriseDB uses a "plain old software licence", Astor said. The only difference with closed-source providers is that the EnterpriseDB database is based on PostgreSQL, an open source product.
And exposing source code introduces an "inherent risk in the business model", said Bill Schnoor, partner at law firm Goodwin Procter, which represents technology companies.
Despite these risks, open source products, notably Linux, are already mainstays in corporate data centres. Now customers are using other products, including databases, middleware and packaged applications.
Information services company Informa, for example, decided to use an open source content management system from Alfresco Software, a company founded by document management industry veterans. The software itself uses a number of open source components, such as the MySQL database and development products Hibernate and Spring.
The Alfresco system serves most of the company's needs, providing the "identical stack" as existing products at a cost that is three orders of magnitude lower, said Bob Hecht, vice-president of content strategies at Informa. "It got so that [the choice] was a no-brainer," he said.
Echoing those sentiments, Ron Rose, the chief information officer of Priceline.com, said that the company has become "predisposed" to buying open source products because they of the "economic benefits". A vibrant community behind a product also ensures a long-term road map, he added.
Goodwin Procter's Schnoor puts the spike in interest in open source software in the context of big technology shifts that have already occurred, such as the Web. The attractiveness of the open source model is likely to create a surplus of open source suppliers, Schnoor said, and he expects many more companies to be launched. But that's typical of all major changes in the software industry, he said.
"Are there a lot of spears that will get broken along the way? Absolutely. It happens every time," Schnoor said.
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4 comments
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These are not right. Let the minds free.
Microsoft... Recai DEREYURT -
Recai, try to take it easy right!
Open source... volkan günaydın -
Yeah! They do their best to suck your mo... Bill Prowant -
this is childish!!
microsoft is a company that has... Yussef Ennaceur
