Open Source Software Today

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Open Source Software Today Lee Congdon
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What You May be Worrying About...

• Cutting costs
• Delivering for your enterprise
• Growing your capabilities
• Innovating

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Open Source Basics
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Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is a good
working term for

• Open source
• Free software
• Libre software
• Software libre
• Free-libre and open source software (FLOSS)

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The concept is cultural

• Provided in source form
• But, typically consumed in binary form
• Relatively permissive, royalty free terms

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The General Public License (GPL) is a prominent
example of a FOSS license

• Internal use essentially unrestricted
• Distribution of binaries must be accompanied by
  source code
• Distributed derivative works must be licensed
  under the GPL
• There are many other licenses

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Example Red Hat Open Source Life Cycle
Develop
Integrate
Test Assure
Deploy
Manage/Support
Red Hat Community
Red Hat Developers
Red Hat Solutions
Community and customer driven innovation, with
enterprise-class stability from the Open Source
leader
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Why Open Source?

• Lower costs
• Improved quality
• Expanded capability
• Increased flexibility
• Positions enterprise for the future
• Standards based
• Enables innovation

Value
Innovation
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Open Source Growth
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SourceForge.net Software Categories

• Clustering
• Database
• Desktop
• Development
• Enterprise
• Financial
• Games

• Hardware
• Multimedia
• Networking
• Security
• Storage
• SysAdmin
• VoIP

Over 230,000 projects registered as of February,
2009.
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Open Source Adoption
"Open source software (OSS) is here to stay--most
enterprises can no longer afford to ignore the
advantages of low up-front costs, quality code,
and a labor pool of software developers and
system administrators experienced with
best-of-breed OSS projects." Burton Group, "Open
Source Management Who Owns That Software?"18
April 2008
Image NathanFromDeVryEET on flickr.com under
Creative Commons license
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Open Source in Selected Software Markets
Server Operating System
Collaboration Tools
Enterprise Applications
Development Tools
Application Servers
Security
Virtualization
Portals
Directory Services
Integration Services
Search
Web Content Management
Process Management
DBMS
Enterprise Service Bus
Embryonic
Emerging
Growing
Maturing
Most Mature
Original Source Gartner 2007
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Open Source Adoption
By 2011, Gartner predicts that at least 80 of
all commercial software solutions will be based
on open source Gartner surveys show 49.7 of open
source used for mission-critical applications
... end-user organizations will use stable
open-source projects as a competitive
differentiator against companies that refuse to
acknowledge that open source is now
enterprise-ready. Gartner Open Source in
Vendor Business Strategies, 2008, March 31, 2008
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Open Source Value
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Open Source Software and the Budget Gap
Open source software lowers capital and operating
expenses, helping CIOs close the gap between
demand and budget.
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Important Value Drivers

• Open source software is often standards based
• Scrutiny by the community improves quality
• Code visibility improves security

Image chaosinjune on flickr.com under Creative
Commons license
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CIO Perspective
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Vital Statistics

• Headquarters in Raleigh, NC
• Founded in 1993
• Nearly 3,000 employees in 30 countries
• Cash and investments 846 million, essentially
  debt free
• FY09 revenues 653 million
• IPO, 1999 (NYSE RHT)

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Red Hat Information Technology Vision

• To become a world-class technology organization
  and to be a beacon for the effective
  implementation of open source solutions.

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Open Source for Your Enterprise
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Establishing an Open Source Mindset

• Hire or train open source advocates
• Put it in your architecture
• Always look for an open source solution first
• Experiment!
• Participate in communities that support your
  business
• Look to open source internally developed
  applications
• Provide forums for open dialog
• Let the best ideas win

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Open Source Software Today Lee Congdon