The most popular and comprehensive Open Source ECM platform
Let us know more
Cloud Computing: Will the Cloud Suffocate Open Source?
The cloud is making proprietary software cool again, or at least it is making open source code less relevant for enterprise IT. Open Source rose to popularity because of its cost savings. Other characteristics like code quality and availability were big pluses for open source, but the fact is that it was cheap, good, and got the job done.
Cloud software is now following the same path. Software in the cloud has cost advantages, is good, and gets the job done. It also hides details about the internals of the software that you run. From an IT perspective, if application software is economical and provides the right capabilities, the fact that it is open source is less important.
In an article for InfoWorld, Matt Asay wrote that “Open source has never been more important or, ironically, irrelevant. As developers increasingly embrace the cloud to shorten time to market, they’re speeding past open source, making it even harder to build an open source business.”
David Linthicum said that “The cloud neutralizes open source’s “free” advantage, and community zealotry alone won’t overcome that shift… open source’s no-cost attribute means less in the cloud. Public cloud providers will charge you for the time you use their cloud to access open source software—or any software… If there is not a dramatic cost advantage, most enterprises won’t care about the platforms that they use in the long run, and that takes away one of open source’s historic strengths.”
Asay wrote “In this convenience-first world, open source licensing may not matter much. As DataStax executive Patrick McFadin told me in an interview, in the future ‘developers will use APIs and will be charged by the call or megabyte. The argument of what type of license will disappear as a result.'”
