Notes from a panel at AO on Is the Whole World Going Open Source. Here is the video and chat archive of the session.
Ray Lane
Industry being democratized. Interesting developments from other parts of the world. Business models changing, the focus of Software CEOs, they know they need to change to something different from a salesperson pitching software for perpetual use. Top 15 companies represent 84% of revenue. Hundreds of companies without profit or value. MSFT, ORCL, SAP = 75% of Profit pool. <5% are really innovative.
Rahul Kapoor
Business rationale: open source is more stable and secure. Diversity in open and closed source products and licenses. We are still at the infancy of the open source, but what is mature is more stable. Linux or Apache.
Jonathan Schwartz
Open source cures cancer. CFO reaction to open source was grumpy, but explained that Linux didn't get in the data center because of their decisions. Not anti-Microsoft, it's anti-expensive software.
Rod Smith
Businesses are recognizing risks and how to address them. Microsoft used to put stuff out that helped you be productive in a matter of hours, now people go to open source for productivity.
Kim Polese
IT is now in the driver seat. Every industry at some point figured out the need to standardize so they can focus on architecting the solutions. Open source solutions and mixed stacks will increasingly be what we see in the enterprise. It's about an industry maturing.
Jonathan Schwartz
Three costs:
- Cost of acquisition
- Costs of operation
- Cost of exit
In your average ERP app, significant cost and lockin. With OSS 1 & 3 are nominal.
Marten Mickos
Open source was always the better way, even in the 50s or 60s. Companies had a temptation of closing things for profit. Today it's the same companies that have problems with open source. Google and others do not have this issue. More lines of code will be written on MySQL than Oracle. Enterprise software is not just ERP, you have email, collaboration and others built on top of it.
Rod Smith
Businesses think they are in the drivers seat. They always know their problem is a bit different and need to tap communities to commoditize. Open source communities are a way to mitigate risk.
Rahul
On open source motivators...If you are a business, price has to be a factor. China moving because they don't want to be dependent. If it is open source, I know what it is I am using. Cost of operations includes the legal/IP aspect.
Jonathan
Customers frustrated because they are locked in.
Ray
Customers want to buy open, but implement closed.
Jonathan
If SAP was open, would it matter? (Ray argues that there would be better economics) Where it matters is in replaceable applications.
Rod
Setting up with new suppliers quickly as an example motivation.
On new business models...
Rahul: need for service, integration, mechanism to help open source packages work together.
Kim: the value of the business is shifting from bits to services. Testing, information, integration wanted by CIOs. Moving from the basic LAMP out to the long tail, applications to really run their businesses.
Marten: millions of net-connected developers that can innovate themselves, even as users with open source.
Rod
If you look at the skill level of people doing innovation, it's people with a little scripting skills, but deep domain expertise -- not PhDs.
Jonathan
slams Redhat distro. Single biggest impact of OSS is it drops the cost of getting a product down to zero. The fact that they can add and enhance to it is a little less important. (Ray: I get better responses for bug fixes with open source) Jonathan with MySQL there are 500k people ready to help.
Rod
They are actually very process driven, they have wikis to coordinate.
Kim
Interoperability has not just been an open source issue. Testing is rising in prominence. DrKW CIO: testing and certification is how open source comes together, refactoring the biggest shift.
Marten
LAMP is not just four letters, you have lots around it like SugarCRM. In just a few years it has grown to be a similar alternative to .Net and J2EE.
Kim
SugarCRM is a new breed of enterprise apps, gaining traction. But when they use it they have to make it work with other parts. We created an integrated installer that gets it up and running with the LAMP stack in minutes. People also like extending SugarCRM.
Marten
Very few people buy cars and open the engine, but the assurance that you can get at the engine is necessary.
Jonathan
This is a replacement for source code escrow.
Rod
Open source doesn't address everything, standards are important.
Kim
Now that I am going beyond the LAMP stack, I want one source of support.
Jonathan
It's about changing the barriers to adopting your product in the short run. Open standards matter more than open source in the long run. Firefox is being adopted because it is a better browser than alternatives.
Ray
Similarly, it's either a good business or not for VCs, not whether it is open or closed.
Marten
Open source says we can't predict all your needs, so we leave it open for you to innovate.
Rod
Hybrid models coming out. You want the innovation, but also want to get to the customer to make sure you are delivering value.
Had to go to the ready room before my panel, so couldn't take notes on the Q&A.
