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Open Source: Not Cheap Enough To Drive Migration
We’ve lived through or are now living through the ‘Great Recession’. And while this recession has hit traditional business models hard, the consensus has been that the recession will only further accelerate Open Source adoption because businesses are scrambling to save dollars. But the reality is that most larger companies have not been pushed to jump aboard Open Source, at least in a big way, not just yet. Most companies have slashed IT budgets and are ‘staying the course’.
Why? While the price of Open Source software is attractive, migration and other ‘hidden’ costs, such as training, have held companies back from selecting Open Source. Peter Birley, director of IT and business operations at Browne Jacobson LLP, said that “regardless of any possible functional benefits of an open source system, the cost of change and retraining would outweigh any benefits certainly in the short term and the project would distract from other more pressing needs.”
IT leaders point out that moving to Open Source brings with it additional risks that you don’t need to contend with using traditional software. And more time needs to be spent in managing and mitigating those risks. There is also the difficulty in being able to find the right specialized IT skills needed to setup and maintain Open Source software. The risks are hard to quantify, but they need to be considered when comparing any option, whether it is Open Source or traditional.
The bottom line is that Open Source continues to grow in mind share and in total number of users, but the great recession has not turned out to be the huge bonanza for Open Source that many analysts have predicted.
