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Open Source: SaaS Threatens the future of OS
Dries Buytaert, founder of the popular Open Source CMS Drupal product, says that cloud computing has done an ‘end run’ around the Open Source community. His point is that while SaaS and Cloud computing is offering up a totally new delivery model, it is echoing the practices of traditional closed-source vendors.
Buytaert says that cloud vendors “might allow you to export your data, but they usually don’t allow you to export their underlying code. While a lot of these services might be built on Open Source components, they have a lot more in common with proprietary software vendors than Open Source projects or companies.”
Buytaert says that there would be more benefits to customers if cloud computing embraced more of the ideas and values of Open Source. One glaring problem with cloud computing is that proprietary systems, whether they are cloud-based or traditional, easily lead to vendor lockin. Right now, once data is stored in the cloud, it’s hard to get it back, and integration with data from other sources is difficult. There are no common standards for importing and exporting cloud data.
Buytaert says that a more open-source approach to cloud computing would enable solutions that are more secure, lower-cost and be able to reach wider communities of users.
With the huge growth that is occurring in cloud computing and the huge popularity that exists with Open Source, it seems that it may not take long for the two forces to combine and move closer to the vision that Buytaert is talking about.
