Billions of dollars are being spent each year to deploy and maintain software licences in enterprises.
Speaking at this week's ITWeb Doing More with Less conference in Bryanston, Snynaq CEO Yossi Hasson discussed the crippling costs of software licensing.
“In the past, the ability to produce, manage and maintain large-scale IT infrastructure was seen as a competitive advantage. Billons of dollars are being invested on infrastructure and licences to provide services to the organisation.”
Hasson explained that cloud computing and open source software are changing this, as many enterprises demand that applications perform as a utility service; meaning applications need to be available at the flip of a switch.
These include essential services such as firewall, e-mail, CRM, and word processor. “Organisations are spending 78% of their IT budgets to maintain, manage and support these services; in other words, to keep the lights on.
Hasson pointed out that the answer lies in cloud computing and open source software. He defined cloud computing as the delivery of applications and the platforms behind those applications via the Internet.
Hasson noted that cloud computing and open source software prevents vendor lock-in. He added that this will spur large cloud vendors such as Salesforce.com to replace proprietary software from companies such as Siebel CRM Systems, which was bought out by Oracle in 2005.
The biggest barrier for local companies in adopting cloud computing technologies is the broadband limitation. However, Hasson expects the number of users using this technology will increase as faster, high-availability and cheaper bandwidth comes in.
During the conference, delegates voiced their concerns about giving their critical data to cloud service providers. Hasson maintains the majority of security breaches are internal; meaning more breaches are caused by employees stealing and distributing confidential information.
“In terms of security of the applications and a company putting data outside of its own network, the cloud provider will provide a security guarantee as to how it will be protected. It's often much easier to manage a security breach on a service level agreement with the provider than dealing with an in-house breach against an employee.”
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