The economic downturn may be regarded as a blessing in disguise
for the open source community and proponents of open source
software. The skeptics (read commercial software vendors) have
suddenly become silent and are in fact willing to support open
source, ironically finding that this move somehow works to their
advantage. Decision makers no longer drag their feet when making a
choice between proprietary or open source. And employees are
gradually accepting open source.
In the past, companies turned to open source solutions to break
free from the shackles of proprietary software vendors. Open source
seemed like the promised land to those who could no longer deal
with monopolistic practices, expensive software licenses and the
arm twisting tactics of commercial software vendors. Remember how a
major database vendor started talking about licenses on a per-CPU
basis in the days when companies started using parallel processing
systems?
These days however, enterprises embrace open source for entirely
different reasons. IT budget cuts during the downturn have forced
companies to consider alternatives like free software, even for
mission-critical applications.
Says Pravir Vohra, Group CTO, ICICI Bank, “We migrated from
Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org in 2002 - 2003. Our employees
opposed the change vociferously. But they gradually learnt to
accept it and this transition has saved us a lot of
money.”
Sheela Foam, manufacturer of Sleepwell mattresses, will enjoy a
saving of Rs 50 lakh because of its migration from a proprietary
ERP software to an open source solution running on the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux platform.
Enterprises such as LIC, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, YES
Bank, Central Bank of India, Canara Bank, The Future Group and
Bharti Airtel are also adopting open source solutions.
Sun Microsystems claims OpenOffice.org, its free office
productivity suite, is downloaded 100,000 times a day. A year ago,
Sun saw just half that number of downloads. Sun also claims that
downloads of Glassfish, its open source application server, have
doubled in the last one year, and that of MySQL, the open source
database, have increased by 30 percent. All the Fortune 500
companies are now using free software.
But it’s not just about the savings. An Indian organization
deployed Linux and Asterisk, a solution that converts a PC into a
full-fledged EPABX system. This not only helped it reduce costs,
but also allowed the company to add new features easily by just
installing additional software modules rather than purchasing
additional hardware.
The subscription model of open source makes it an attractive
proposition in times when enterprises increasingly shift from a
CAPEX to an OPEX model. In fact the pay-as-you-use or
pay-for-what-you-use concept is also driving the adoption of models
such as Software as a Service (SaaS).
Open source subscriptions include free updates, support and a range
of services. But the real attraction is the fact that enterprises
are free to tinker around with the software, tweak it and adapt it
to their needs. They can start paying for the software when they
are comfortable with it.
|
Analyst View
Asheesh Raina, Principal Research
Analyst, Software (Asia Pacific), Gartner
|
|
 From a technology perspective, open source is getting
more matured, worldwide. The architectural stack is getting more
traction and we see more mission-critical applications used in
enterprises. The same trend has percolated to the Indian
enterprises albeit to a lesser extent, in terms of traction.
Open source has become more pervasive. We realize that open source
is displacing revenues—in the application development and
middleware spaces—from proprietary software. Indian
enterprises are dedicating more resources for exploring open source
initiatives within the organization. They are keen to use open
source to leverage the cost containment and also pass on the
benefit to the end user and customers.
Open source has grown a lot in the last five years. There are a lot
more resources around it, right from training centers to
support.
The BFSI sector has always been a big technology spender. The trend
continues and they will spend the most on open source. Issues such
as manageability, integration, interoperability, training, and
skilled resources are still in the process of getting resolved.
There are a few things that need to change. Earlier people went in
for open source because they wanted to break away from vendor
lock-in. But now this intent has changed and cost-cutting has
become the primary focus.
The transition is also easier now because open source has become
more mature. The ecosystem is more developed because there are more
private parties offering support, training etc. But there is still
potential for more improvement.
Going forward I see that the traction will be higher but the
complexities will also increase. There are multiple licensing
agreements in open source and its users are expected to honor
certain conditions. At the individual level you can get by, but as
an enterprise, there are many conditions that you need to fulfill
for the licensing agreements. Sometimes it also becomes a
commercial software.
I think the ecosystem around it will be more on the usage aspect
rather than the technology aspect.
|
Changing attitudes
It’s
benefits like these that have changed the attitude of enterprises
towards open source solutions.
Opines Prakash Advani, Partner Manager for Central Asia, Canonical,
“Initially there was a certain amount of resistance (towards
open source) due to user resistance to change, but this has changed
in the recent past.”
Says Venkatesh Hariharan, Corporate Affairs Director at Red Hat,
“In the downturn people have more time to look at alternative
options. People are now looking at revitalizing systems and also at
re-skilling. Getting people trained on new platforms is a new
priority, so there’s a lot more interest in open source.
Around five years ago, there were a lot of questions about
scalability, whether the business model will work etc. Those issues
are no longer discussed and people are looking more closely at open
source.”
Five years ago, few IT managers were willing to consider open
source solutions for business applications. There were many issues
to be sorted out: support, skilled manpower, interoperability and
integration. However, the scenario has changed today, thanks to a
stronger ecosystem and greater maturity.
The shortage of skilled manpower was a stumbling block to open
source in the past. But the ecosystem that offers training and
support is much stronger today. Companies like Red Hat for
instance, have good training programs. Red Hat offers training and
certification at 300 locations across the country. It claims close
to 15,000 Red Hat Certified Engineers (RHCE) in the
country—the highest in the world.
Opines Asheesh Raina, Principal Research Analyst, Software (Asia
Pacific), Gartner, “The grey issues, such as licensing and
support, have been addressed. There are many private vendors trying
to support these initiatives. Many proprietary software vendors are
also trying to align their products with open source. They are no
longer fighting against it.”
Vendors of proprietary/commercial software cannot ignore the fact
that the downturn has forced enterprises to go the open source way.
In fact vendors have partnered with Linux developers. A notable
example is the partnership between Microsoft and Red Hat.
Bowing to customer demand, Red Hat and Microsoft recently signed
reciprocal agreements to ensure that there is interoperability
between the two companies' virtualization platforms. According to
the agreement each company will join the other's virtualization
validation/certification program and will provide technical support
for their mutual server virtualization customers.
Traditionally the Telecom, Government and BFSI sectors have been
the biggest adopters of open source. But the cost-benefit (and
other aforementioned factors) is now driving other verticals to
adopt open source solutions.
So, it seems like open source has finally arrived in the business
world!