Posted by
stephen – February 9, 2010
SpringSource recently announced a change in their open source strategy. SpringSource’s dm Server project (a Java/Spring application server) was previously monetized using the open core model in which a product’s core functionality is available as open source and a commercial version of the product is sold with a different license agreement and/or an enhanced feature set. SpringSource has decided to move to a complimentary service model in which the product is offered entirely free of charge and subscriptions for support can be purchased.
As organizations better understand their own offerings, the markets they operate in and open source itself, changes in strategy and business model can be beneficial to their ability to create value. As an acquisition of VMWare, there may be ulterior motives to this strategy switch which is counter to what has been happening in the open source word as of late. Savio Rodrigues of InfoWorld weighed in on the switch here stating that:
“It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that VMware is attempting to drive dm Server adoption through the Eclipse Foundation and monetize the adoption when operations team want to deploy dm Server applications on Cloud infrastructure. The dm Server support subscriptions are a stop gap until VMware can build out its cloud offerings and dm Server adoption increases.”
Read Savio’s whole post here.
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Posted by
stephen – September 18, 2009
In yesterday’s post I mentioned that organization’s views on open source are always changing and they tend to be going in a positive direction. Where open source was once viewed as an arbitrary process-less free for all where anarchy ruled today it is recognized as a legitimate form of software development with decentralized management and lightweight but effective processes. Business’ views on open source began to change in 1995, with the release of Red Hat Linux. Tom Young, then CEO of Red Hat architected a brilliant plan – offer the operating system for free and make it available for download anywhere on the internet. Red Hat was the first distribution of Linux available for free and the first available for download. Young’s plan worked, Red Hat became the Linux standard and organizations began to adopt it. This marked the start of an era where open source was viewed as legitimate by businesses.
Today, use of open source is common practice in many organizations. Projects like Apache & MySql (important parts of the LAMP stack) have commercial support options and still enjoy a majority share of the market. Company PBX’s run on Asterix and projects like Eclipe’s RCP are used to jump-start product development. But this is all old news. This is part of the traditional definition of the value open source provides. Much like open source projects are maturing, so are the businesses that depend on them. Now OSS is recognized as a tool to create and capture value, it is leveraged to create competitive advantage and to identify new markets.
This new breed of manager recognizes that ecosystems can be built around open source projects that not only serve customer need, but also provide stability and value for the organization. Organizations such as Red Hat, Novell and Eclipse have realized this and are leading the way, enjoying profitability as they go.
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Posted by
stephen – September 17, 2009
Based on research being undertaken at Carleton University’s TIM program (of which I am a graduate) Peter Carbone (Nortel) and Tony Bailetti (Carleton) have developed a model of the open source engagements strategies organizations use. Broken into 5 types of interactions, Carbone & Bailetti break down the actions and benefits of each strategy. This type of work highlights the shifting maturity of open source users who now realize that open source can be used for much more than a shortcut to product release.
The Carbone/Bailetti interaction strategy model
The model is comprised of five interaction strategies. Appropriated value is increased as the number or projects interacted with increases. In latter stages value is created and captured based on the interactions with open source. (from http://www.slideshare.net/brianhurley/day-2-morning-open-source-carbone-and-weiss)
More…
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Posted by
stephen – September 15, 2009
Open Source Maturity
In yesterday’s post, I talked about some of the drivers and benefits of open source adoption for organizations. However it is important for any organization to do their due diligence before deciding to use or contribute to an OSS project. Like any other investment it is important to have a good idea there will be a return on that investment and that the time to profitability is acceptable for your organization. Immature projects may be gone tomorrow, while mature projects may have support plans that rival the cost of commercial offerings.
It is important to ensure the project is mature enough for consumption or contribution by your organization. Open source maturity is defined differently by different sources but it boils down to the stability, reliability and community a project has. More…
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