Many of today’s hottest new enterprise technologies are centered around free, “open-source” technology. As a result, many big companies — from financial giants to retailers to services firms — are building their businesses around new, community-based technology that represents a sea change from the IT practices of the past.
But how can corporate customers — and investors — evaluate all these new open-source offerings?
Having lots of users for your open-source project does not automatically translate into creating a commercially viable company.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Open Source vs Proprietary: What organisations need to know
Meeting IT and business priorities with a hybrid approach to open source and proprietary solutions
https://www.sas.com/en_gb/whitepapers/open-source-vs-proprietary.html
Open source technologies, like Hadoop, R and Python, have been vital to the spread of big data. However, production deployment of these technologies has its own, often unexpected costs and projects are not necessarily succeeding as hoped. However, organisations see clear benefits from both open source and proprietary solutions, with a mixture of the two perceived as delivering the best return on investment.
This report, based on a survey of 300 senior IT and business decision-makers across the UK & Ireland, aims to create a better understanding of the key considerations for open source and proprietary analytics technology, drivers for business transformation and any limitations to success.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The hidden open code hidden costs surprise many companies: “a car that does not work on all roads”
More than 90 percent of IT decision-makers to admit that the open source associated with the use of hidden costs, estimated analytiikkafirma SAS’s recent report . Even half of the decision makers note that they have not taken into account the open source indirect costs, such as training, recruitment, or dependence on certain experts.
According to a survey conducted by SAS in Great Britain and Ireland, 59% of open source companies do not currently take into account the costs they incur if their talents leave the house.
Six out of 10 companies will lower their operating costs by training their experts. Only a little over half takes into account the time to solve the problems.
“Many companies in the UK and Ireland ignore the related costs, and in my experience, the situation is also very similar in Finland.”
94 percent of those surveyed said that open source use also includes hidden vulnerabilities. The most common concern is the security threats that mentioned every other respondent. Also lack of control (45%) and distrust of open source communities (39%) cared for the respondents.
Three out of ten respondents also mentions the dependence of certain code experts as a possible threat.
Most commonly, the respondents believed that the so-called combination solution (typically 60% closed and 40% open source) would bring the best return on investment.
“Business decision-making should be based on a real business problem, not a discourse between open and closed source, and many companies are making good use of both,” says Sandell.
“The use of open source is comparable to the ordering of a car tire according to the dimensions to a specific problem on a certain road.”
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/Kaikki_uutiset/avoimen-koodin-piilokustannukset-yllattavat-monet-firmat-autonrengas-joka-ei-toimi-kaikilla-teilla-6648737