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Taking the risk out of open source

Johannesburg, 02 Sept 2011

Companies need to understand the risks associated with community open source software as well as vendor lock-in when choosing an open source solution.

This is according to the GM of Linux Warehouse, Shannon Moodley, who says vendor-supported open source software provides a high return on investment at the lowest risk.

She points out that companies face serious financial and IT compatibility consequences if their open source software is not fully compliant with business standards. Linux Warehouse, in partnership with ITWeb, is running a survey to find out what factors business should consider when choosing open source products.

Moodley warns the biggest risk associated with a community open source operating system is when it is not certified for use with a particular hardware platform or application. Because the software is supported by a community, she adds, problems relating to the open source code rely on the community to fix it.

“With vendor-supported open source software, the onus is on the vendor to fix bugs, and [this] is typically connected to service level agreements.”

According to Moodley, the most common problem companies experience is failing to make use of the software support and tools provided by the vendor. “The best way to avoid this is to engage with local partners and the vendor.”

She adds that in comparison with proprietary software, vendor-supported open source software offers more freedom to system integrators and developers. “Secondly, open source software tends to be developed on an open standard, once again making it easier for both developers and system integrators.”

Moodley says businesses should have the ability to change hardware, virtualisation layers, operating systems and applications without negatively impacting their IT environment.

“This can be achieved with systems being cross-platform and using open standards. These are elements that one can typically find in open source software, while not always the case with proprietary software.”

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