Gartner recognises Open Source….or does it?

  by Luke Stedman | 08 Apr 2008 | Permalink | Open Source

Gartner, the information and technology advisory firm, have released a report outlining the impact that Open Source Software will have on businesses in the coming years, even if no one notices it happening.

Some of the “highlights” in the report are:

• By 2011, open source will dominate software infrastructure for cloud-based providers.


• By 2012, more than 90% of enterprises will use open source in direct or embedded forms.


• By 2012, software as a service (SaaS) will eclipse open source as the preferred enterprise IT cost-cutting method.


• By 2013, a majority of Linux deployments will have no real software TCO advantage over other operating systems (OSs).

Some Open Source promoters may see this report in a positive light, admittedly there are positives – for example the 90% of enterprises using Open Source by 2012, but this is balanced by a somewhat blinkered view (IMHO) on SaaS v. FOSS and Linux deployment.

Admittedly Open Source Software and SaaS seem to be two very different beasts, Open Source gives you flexibility and control, but in the majority of cases this comes with the added complexity of deploying, configuring and understanding the impact that Open Source will have on your business.

Software as a service on other hand provides you with a service, no setup needed, no hardware needed, you simply pay to access it, but you lose the control of having the software deployed in-house and you are paying to access your data, in a modern business data is critical…can you trust the provider to look after it?

But rather than looking at them as opposing ends of the spectrum, shouldn’t software companies be trying to combine them?

The majority of SaaS providers already make use of various Open Source technologies to provide access to their software, be it a Linux OS, Apache webserver and/or Tomcat Application server…but what if the software provided had the same flexibility as Open Source Software?

Suddenly SaaS would have the advantage of being easy to deploy and administrate, while possessing the ability to be modified to suite the direct business need of the company using it. Now admittedly I’m sure most SaaS providers would be rather reluctant to allow mass configuration of their product, but small changes here and there to allow business to better utilise there services would only be a positive.

Now on to the view that Linux deployments will have no real TCO advantage over other Operating Systems, firstly I will own up…I am a Tux head, so I do have a somewhat biased view on this subject, but my objection to the statement is not just based on the usual OSS v. Proprietary argument.

Looking at the arguments that are used by Gartner there are some rather interesting claims…

“the availability, management and database management system licensing costs will remain proprietary”

I don’t think this can considered a problem with too much Open Source software, rather not enough.

“Moreover, version control and incompatibilities will continue to plague open-source OSs and associated middleware.”

Linux is a maturing platform, by comparison Linux is only in its teens, whereas Windows is in its early twenties – a comparison between Linux in six years time and Windows Vista would be fairer.

“ Software vendors have been reluctant and resistant to change their license terms, regardless of the open-source nature of the OS.”

What evidence is there for this statement?
You are now able to download many enterprise products for free, be it Websphere Application Server “Express Edition”, Oracle “Express Edition”, VMWare Server “Open Source”, etc…

Every month there is news about another major software company embracing Open Source Software, supporting Open Source projects or releasing some of there source code under Open Source licenses…even Microsoft.

…if this doesn’t show a change in opinion then I don’t know what does.

I believe that Linux is a good operating system for the majority of tasks, this has come from 5 years of playing, fiddling, breaking things and putting them back together, but I do not believe that you should use a particular system just for the sake of using it.

When deploying a new system you should choose whatever is best for the task at hand, if your end users use Windows and you need a document collaboration system – then use Sharepoint, trying to hack together a Linux based system just for the hell of it is pretty silly.

But I think Gartner are overlooking two things, the improved ease at which a Linux system can be deployed and administrated and the adaptability of IT staff to “just get the job done”.

Over the last couple of years Linux distributions have improved there installation processes immensely, I am impressed every time I install a new version of Fedora with the minor improvements that have been made in easing the installation process.

I think an almost novice Linux user, though experienced admin, would find it relatively easy to set-up a LAMP based system, which is very useful if you need a webserver quickly but don’t have the budget for a new machine or a copy of Windows – such as in the public sector come mid-March ;-)

The argument that has always been used against the TCO of Linux is that the staff required to administrate such systems are prohibitively expensive, obviously this has to be true as someone is unable to do anything outside of their tightly defined skill set…

I have worked with some superb IT staff in my time who when the need arose had to use a skill that they didn’t have in a situation that they didn’t understand, they may have failed on their first attempt but they kept trying…eventually they succeeded.

So what do I predict for the future of Open Source, I predict that predictions will come back to bite you when you least expect it, even the great and good of the computing industry have got it very wrong in the past…

Thomas J. Watson, chairman of the board of IBM: “I think there’s a world market for about five computers.”