With government adoption of the Open Document Format and increasing tension between the proprietary and open source vendor spheres, 2008 promises to be an interesting year for open source software and standards.
One of the trends we will definitely see continuing into the new year is that of enterprise customers demanding open source solutions above and beyond the traditional demand for Linux.
Linux has made huge headway in the enterprise market with customers increasingly realising the advantages of using Linux as a platform for their solutions.
Reputable vendors
These include stability, security, reliability and general robustness of the Linux kernel. Added to the advantages of the system itself is the fact that Linux is available from reputable vendors and their partners who offer not only tailored Linux solutions and the accompanying training that is required to deploy them successfully, but also a high level of professional support, which is a must for any enterprise technology.
Linux has proven itself within the enterprise arena and many major players in the market, from the financial sector through to manufacturing and virtually every other vertical, have successfully made the switch. But at the application level, most customers have made use of proprietary software solutions, running on top of the Linux platform. This is mostly due to legacy requirements.
The success of the open source operating system has, however, paved the way for growing adoption of open source applications.
In recent months we have seen enterprise customers increasingly realising that there is more to be gained from the use of open source technologies than just Linux.
Private sector
What is becoming increasingly apparent in the private sector is that customers are not concerned with the methodologies employed in developing any particular solution, but rather what differentiates that solution from others and how it can deliver value to their business.
Open source solutions for collaboration and security are increasingly being demanded and open source projects that provide solutions in those arenas are proving to be more reliable, feature-rich and offer more value than their proprietary rivals.
In 2008, collaboration will continue to be a key focus area for enterprise customers, as will virtualisation and databases; the latter being driven by the demands of customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning systems.
Security solutions
In terms of security, Linux firewalls have been the mainstay of enterprises for the last 20 years, but we are now seeing an increasing demand for security solutions that focus inward from the edge of the network as the demand for pervasive, end-to-end security advances.
Open source solutions can be tailored to the enterprise customer's needs more easily than proprietary solutions.
Muggie van Staden is MD of Obsidian Systems
Part of the realisation being made by enterprises in terms of open source is that open source is innovative and flexible. Solutions are coming to the fore that do not attempt to clone an existing, proprietary solution, but rather seek to offer a true alternative in terms of methodology and approach. Open source solutions can also be tailored to the enterprise customer's needs more easily than proprietary solutions where the code-base is inaccessible by third-party developers.
Another sign of the growing demand for open source enterprise solutions is the fact that open source companies internationally are starting to extend their local reach. Major players in the industry have recently appointed South African partners in anticipation of the growth in use of open source locally.
This extends beyond the expected demand from government which is obliged to make use of open source via policy. The kind of vendors that have set up shop locally, for example major database providers, have a bigger picture in terms of the South African market than just catering for the public sector.
Advantages
It is clear that vendors are gearing up for widespread adoption in 2008 - not just in SA, but internationally, as enterprises realise the advantages of open source software usage and increasingly demand solutions that meet the requirements of their business.
We are also starting to see the rise of smaller start-ups that specialise in the development of open source add-on solutions to both proprietary and open source products already available.
2008 will see not only the move towards open standards, with continuing debate surrounding their ratification and implementation, but also a big move to open source infrastructure outside of just the operating system layer. A bet on open source virtualisation, collaboration and database products making a big impact in 2008 would be, from my perspective, a safe one.
* Muggie van Staden is MD of Obsidian Systems.
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