The Statement
The Statement

Is open source right for your firm?

By Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp

What is open source?

Open source is software provided by individuals or corporations under a license that allows consumers using that software to see how it works, make changes and even, if desirable, to redistribute those changes under a similar license.

The primary advantages of such software is that a qualified developer can find and fix problems without relying on any other party, and the provider of the software does not have a monopoly on support and maintenance.

As a developer, I prefer open source software for those two reasons. However, those two reasons don’t typically mean much to an IT manager who is neither a qualified developer for most pieces of software. He or she also may not particularly care where the support comes from as long as the company providing it has a good track record.

Solutions come first

What does matter is trying to estimate, as accurately as possible, the trade-offs incurred by individual solutions. It is my opinion that open source does not, from the typical IT manager’s perspective, have any inherent benefits over commercial software. Neither does commercial software have any inherent advantage over open source. Instead, an IT solution should be evaluated on a per-case basis, with the license being a single attribute of that evaluation.

Whenever evaluating software, it is helpful to perform a D.O.S. assessment.

Dangers

How much does the license for each solution cost? How much time and money do you estimate will be required to implement each solution? How much will you spend on maintenance of the solution and over what time period? How much time and money do you estimate your staff will spend maintaining the product? Do you need additional staff? Will the expenses be heavy up front or heavy on the back-end? Which is more problematic for your situation? Are there training costs needed for the IT staff? For the general staff?

Opportunities

What aspects of the problem are most important and should be handled most efficiently by the solution? Which solution seems to best match your problem? How easy is each solution to install, maintain and update? How scalable is each solution to cope with firm growth?

Strengths

What knowledge does your staff already have that can be taken advantage of? What platforms do you already have in place that the solution can take advantage of? Can the solutions you are considering integrate with existing systems? Which solution requires less training and operates in a way more familiar with the staff using it?

These are the questions you should be focused upon as an IT manager. Discriminating against a solution on the basis of whether it has a commercial license or open source license is poor judgment. Rather, you should focus on whether a given system is advantageous based on the problem you are trying to solve. If you have staff capable of examining the source code and finding problems directly, open source may have a clear advantage. On the other hand, a commercial solution supported by a partner company built to work side-by-side with your other applications might be superior regardless of staffing.

As an advocate for open source, I always like to see companies adopting open source software. However, I am a pragmatist, and no solution is perfect for every situation. IT managers need to evaluate each problem and each potential solution individually. Make sure you know the advantages and disadvantages of the solutions rather than discriminating on the basis of license.

Andrew Hanenkamp is the interaction developer with Boomer Consulting, Inc.