|
|
Recent Articles |
The Current IT State Of Cloud Computing
I spent two days at the Cloud Computing Expo in NYC this past week and want to share my thoughts on the state of the cloud. Here are my thoughts in no...
The Next Big Thing To Learn Is Cloud Computing
Whenever you roll out a new technology, there are always changes to how people perceive that technology, and the ramifications to employment that technology has. Cloud computing is disruptive, allowing fewer people to...
IDC Revises Global IT Spending Growth In 2009
The continued decline of the global economy has led IDC to revise its forecast for worldwide IT spending in 2009. The IDC Black Book now forecasts worldwide IT spending will grow by just 0.5 percent year-over-year in 2009...
New Study Points To Better-Paying IT Certifications
An old Irish phrase that's meant to be said to friends mentions something about the sun shining on a person's face and the wind being at his back. These days, you'd almost want to change that to his job being secure...
|
|
04.17.09
IT Certification Looks Toward Freeware Or Freedom
 By Savio Rodrigues
Earlier this week Forrester released a report titled: "Open Source Software Goes Mainstream". While the title may not be breaking news to readers of Open Sources, the data backing up the report is well worth the read. The report is based on responses from over 1100 software development decision makers in North American and European enterprises and SMBs. According to the survey, the top three planning goals for 2009 are:
Credit: Forrester
It's no surprise that lower costs, improved integration and increased innovation are at the top of IT decision maker's minds in 2009. It would be interesting to see how these three goals were rated by respondents who were increasing their usage of open source versus respondents who didn't use open source or who were decreasing open source usage. Since reducing IT costs is the #1 goal for 2009, I found this quote particularly interesting:
"For most developers, the end matters more than the means. Forrester has seen this trend in multiple surveys over the past two years. For the vast majority of application development professionals, OSS is simply a means to an end. Most developers don't really care that OSS is libre (free as in freedom); they care that it's gratis (free as in beer). If there's a direct relationship between an OSS component and the top three planning goals from our recent survey, developers will tactically adopt it. If not, most won't adopt OSS for its own sake."
The Power, Control and Services You Need Wrapped
in the Expert Support You Want - Learn More |
I don't have the depth of data that Forrester does, but this finding supports several customer discussions I've had recently. If free is beginning to matter more than freedom, I'm beginning to wonder if established software vendors can attract developer adoption of new products without offering an open source version of the product?
I'm torn because of the new survey and anecdotal data on this topic. Maybe it's because open source adoption has crossed the chasm between the religious adopters and regular developers. If a free closed source product is more aligned with project needs, then it seems "regular developers" are at least willing to seriously consider it over a less well suited open source product. Historically, an established closed source product has been overkill for the usage scenarios where open source products were being considered. But this seems likely to change as established vendors build lighter weight next generation versions of their products to better compete with open source products.
Comments
About the Author:
Savio Rodrigues is a product manager with IBM's WebSphere Software division. He envisions a day when open source and traditional software live in harmony. This site contains Savio's personal views. IBM does not necessarily agree with the views expressed here.
|
