Open Source - what it should mean to businesses

A bit of a look back

Open source has been with us for much longer than most people would think. It has been a fundamental part of the Internet since its inception running up to the 1990s. Indeed the very first web browsers and servers were freely available to download, use and experiment with before the Internet had broken out of military and academic fields. So what is Open Source exactly?

In its simplest terms it can be defined as computer software that is made available for use and modification by its authors. There are many different ways, or licenses that are used to achieve this from a legal standpoint. There are also lots of opinions on how Open Source relates to the terms 'Free as in Beer' or 'Free as in Freedom'. But the important factor to take forward is that there are no license costs, and you have the right to use and modify the software to meet your needs. Further, in most cases you are free to distribute those modifications as part of a business with minimal, if any, requirments or restrictions from the original authors.

So today, over twenty years on, there is a massive pool of open and freely available software to address a vast array of user requirements with an equally impressive community of developers and experts offering support, advice and service for free or commercial gain.

The argument against

With the array of software and expertise out there, why is it that Open Source has been seen as a pariah by the business community for so long? The usual arguments thrown about are, in no particular order;

• that the quality of the software is poor
• that support is ineffective or unreliable
• that nothing is truly free and the cost of retraining staff is prohibitively expensive
• that there are always hidden costs
• that it is a security risk to use Open Source
• that it just can't be as good as the best commercial products out there
• something is bound to go wrong and you'll lose your job because you chose Open Source

The list goes on, and to your average decision maker its a convincing argument. Or so it has been until events such as global economic crisis with extreme financial pressures have forced businesses to seek out any avenues for savings or survival. Even the path of the damned that leads to Open Source has become well trodden in recent times. All very dramatic but what's the real picture when you take away the fear mongering from the commercial software providers and ill-informed?

The argument for Open Source

With the levelling of the economic playing field businesses are re-evaluating Open Source and paying more attention to the claims of its benefits and potential cost savings. More and more large organisations are moving away from the traditional platforms and software providers to embrace the Open Source option and are reaping the benefits of doing so. Some of the largest businesses in the world have based their entire operations on Open Source, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Amazon. And it is not just web giants, the London Stock Exchange operates from a derivative of the GNU/Linux Open Source operating system. It's also not just large businesses. If your business has a website that is run on a system provided by any one of the thousands of web hosting company, then the chances are that it is run on the Apache Web Server one of the most widely used Open Source systems available today. 

Open Source covers all aspects of software and business in some way or another, from where you expect it, running web servers and Internet services, or as an Office Suite in your business, or driving your mobile phone, to places you would never think of, such as running your Fridge (Electrolux Infinity I-Kitchen), or in your TV (Google TV). 

So what are the counter arguments, why can Open Source be trusted in your business?

• It's cost effective - by the mere fact that there are no punitive license fees your business is able to use that expenditure on alternatives such as digital marketing to increase your revenue in more direct terms.
• It's as secure as commercial software (some might argue more secure) - this is due to the very openness of its code. Everyone gets to see how it works and evaluate it for security and quality. There is nowhere to hide any dirty secrets, short cuts or shoddy code. Not if you want your project to be accepted by the community and succeed.
• It's quality is more visible - for the same reasons it is more secure, everyone can see what your doing.
• It's protected from vendor termination - how many times has a commercial product suddenly been discontinued because of a change in direction by the owning company. With Open Source you are protected as there is always the option to develop the code with other parties. In fact it is quite normal for long running projects to have changes in leadership, bringing fresh ideas and impetus to flagging development cycles.

So how does E-scape use Open Source?

The first thing is, that E-scape does not exclusively use Open Source to run its business. Sure we could do it if we really wanted to, but it doesn't always make sense. The Open Source world is not a replacement for commercial software, it is an alternative that can often be uses in harmony with existing commercial systems. We find the best tool for the job be it Open Source or otherwise. Of course we always check out for an Open solution before looking commercially, why pay for something when it might be out there for free. But even if there is an Open option it still has to do the job properly before it gets selected.

So we have not chosen to use the Open Source operating system GNU/Linux on our desktops becasue it just does not quite work well enough for us. However, we do use it for all our web servers as it out performs everything else in that role. Because we have chosen to use Mac OSX on our desktops we have a whole load of Open Source tools pre-configured for our development team right away. Web Servers, development languages, databases, and most of the core operating system for Mac OSX are open source. We also have a large list of commercially bought tools to assist with operating those Open Source systems.

We do nearly all of our development in PHP, Java, and Javascript. All of these languages are Open Source, or Open Standards that are freely available for implementation by the development community or commercial entities.

With this combination of commercial and Open Source solutions we are able to cost effectively deliver an Open solution for most of our clients, that gives them all of the benefits and freedoms that we enjoy so much about the Open Source world.