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Enterprise Open Source: Free versus Paid Licensing Models
There’s many advantages to using Open Source software in the enterprise. Benefits of Open Source cited often include high quality, auditability, lower TCO, and greater flexibility.
Jan-Jan van der Vyver, MD of Linux Warehouse, told ITWeb that “We are seeing ‘land and expand’ when it comes to enterprise open source – enterprises adopt a specific solution to meet a particular need, then go on to grow their enterprise open source stack. Enterprise open source is happening now, and it is moving up the stack through applications and middleware. Businesses can either put their heads in the sand, or embrace it. When businesses embrace enterprise open source, they reap significant advantages, for example, increased ability to innovate.”
Open Source software models range from free downloads to user-paid subscriptions. Typically an Open Source project will offer two options: one totally free and another version that requires some form of payment. Both options come with a different license or set of use conditions.
While a free version of community-supported Open Source is an attractive way to get started with software, long-term, for mission-critical projects, sticking with the community-supported version usually isn’t the best strategy. In fact, choosing the free version of a mission-critical software component can be a big risk. Timely technical support and responses to your questions is often spotty or lacking with community versions.
Gerald Pfeifer, senior director for product management and operations at SUSE , said that “Individual users will often tough out solving problems through community help forums, but SMB owners and enterprise users more likely will opt for paid support rather than devoting internal resources to support open source software.”
In the big scheme of expenses associated with getting an enterprise software system up and running smoothly, software licensing costs are often just a small component of the total price tag.
When considering the total costs of a project, categories of software costs that need to be considered include the following:
- Licensing and governance
- Maintenance and technical support
- Implementation and integration
- Training
- Hardware servers, data storage, and networking
