Tech Tools & Toys: August
(Open Source) Deal or No Deal?
If you’re responsible at your firm for making the decision about, or at least weighing in on, an open-source versus commercial-software debate (“This will kill Microsoft” against “No, it won’t; and your stockholders or investors do not care”) … I say, “Follow the money.” Given the fundamental goal of an enterprise to create economic value, look first and last at the economics to decide total cost of ownership.
Initial Costs: Some open-source products are free (but with “Don’t-Use-in-Commerce” warnings, ala MySQL). Many successful open-source projects have evolved into commercial versions; often at one-half (or less) the price of commercial competitors.
Ongoing Costs: Commercial products almost universally have fee-based support; open-source products may have fee-based support, often at about the same price (to pay the support engineers, of course). Free, community support is prevalent in open source but may be spotty. You don’t have much leverage if you’re getting lousy service for free. Open-source configuration is often more complex; it’s the nature of the beast. Is your IT person or consultant familiar with the product you’re considering? You don’t want them learning on your nickel.
Interoperability and Customization: Open-source proponents say, “Of course!” I say, “Not so fast.” Do you want to hire an engineer to learn a few hundred thousand lines of code, just so you can tweak it? Examine products you’re considering for the customization and interoperability you need before you buy. Commercial software is usually designed with ample flexibility. Interoperability in open source is often stronger, but is it important?
Timing Is Important: Consider open-source products when you’re starting up or expanding. Switching later can be disruptive and expensive. What you install today will limit your future decisions.
Best in Class: Consider open-source products that are mature and successful. Avoid open-source products that may introduce risks that cost you a bundle down the road. Back-office products worthy of consideration include Apache (running on more than two-thirds of the world’s web servers vs. Microsoft IIS). Apache has a reputation for being durable and mature, with plenty of community and fee-based knowledge and support. The MySQL database gives DB2, Oracle and others a run for their money. Carefully consider the cost of open-source desktop products that often require significant retraining (e.g., Linux and Open Office). Although, at about 10 percent of the cost of Windows, it’s worth an examination.
The other day, a salesman told me that his company had implemented a feature in XML for true interoperability. Now I can manually edit the XML instead of using a GUI form editor? Give me a break! Data wrapped in bulky, CPU-guzzling, network-drowning XML is still proprietary data and, in this case, very well should be. XML’s benefits are quite narrowly focused, and its drawbacks, especially when inappropriately applied by poorly educated or misguided technologists, are legend.
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