Open source is the only way to keep up with the demands of digital transformation. Big businesses such as Google and Apple run their digital platforms on some form of Linux infrastructure, indicating that open source is the only way for them to meet the markets demands faster.
This is according to Joachim Werner, senior product manager for systems management at SUSE, speaking at ITWeb's SUSE Expert Days Forum in Johannesburg today.
Organisations are constantly being challenged to adapt their infrastructure in order to meet the changing demands of customers, and open source has reduced the cost of creating and developing the new digital platforms that drive digital transformation, Werner explained.
"By leveraging open source, organisations benefit from solutions that provide better quality and security - driven and validated by the community. With more individuals participating in the development and testing of the code in more unique environments, open source solutions have fewer feature bugs and security exposures.
"Open source also provides rapid innovation with a larger community of developers supporting the evolution of the open source solution, there is the capability for innovation to happen at a more rapid pace," he asserted.
Discussing the reason behind the lower costs of open source solutions, Werner pointed out that many open source solutions are available for free, however, most companies do not want the burden of supporting the infrastructure software themselves. Thus, they choose a vendor's distribution services and only pay for support, with no cost for the software licence.
Many vendors have ended up locked in to proprietary solutions that were no longer meeting their needs when their vision changes, however, this is not the case with open source, he noted. "Open source solutions that stay true to the open application programming interface (API) mean that if organisations build on top of those APIs and then decide they aren't happy with the underlying vendor's solution, they can move with less pain because any work they did to integrate, should work with any other distribution."
SUSE's approach towards digital transformation, he continued, is an open and flexible infrastructure built using open source technologies and standard APIs. Organisations can meet the challenges of digital transformation with innovative SUSE technologies such as the company's operating system layer, Sles, Suse Manager, Salt and more.
"Our comprehensive set of solutions can help support organisations' vision to address digital transformation challenges. SUSE offers flexible and adaptive solutions, which are critical to maintaining competitive advantage without sacrificing reliability and security, while controlling capital and operational expenses," he concluded.
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