Open Source Support: Gaps in Internal Expertise
The need for Enterprise Level open source support continues to rise, as does the adoption of OSS in the enterprise. The interest of cutting costs and accelerating development is tops of everyone’s mind as we head into 2012, and an uncertain economy. Budgets are tight and goals are as aggressive as ever for what is sure to be an exciting year with the inclusion of cloud technology in most IT budgets around the globe.
There is a responsibility facing enterprises to produce higher yields from the resources that have been allotted, and adoption of OSS is the answer many are looking to for that reprieve. Costs can be cut without compromising functionality by making the switch to open source software, however, use of such software can also expose a company to unexpected and unacceptable obligation and risk depending on the terms of the license that governs its use and distribution. Not to mention the concerns that come along with the replacement of commercial software with regards to your team’s open source expertise and preparedness.
A top challenge facing enterprises when adopting new open source technologies are gaps in internal expertise. Therein lies the need to leverage a 3rd party for Enterprise Level, commercial grade support options, in order to address these gaps in training, internal expertise, technical performance, and business process. It is not uncommon for developers to be familiar with a new open source technology, but lack the extensive hands-on experience necessary to use it in production or migrate away from a proprietary solution.
Interesting to note that just last week the French Government tendered for open source support. The tender details a need for support on hundreds of packages, covering two-thirds of the countries twenty-two ministries, spanning three years time, at a price of two million Euros. Pretty amazing.
With all of the excitement and discussion regarding support options, it is however, highly common, that many searches for OSS support solutions are ultimately concluded with a choice of the status quo. The decision to make no change at all, after exploring alternative solutions, happens frequently for a multitude of reasons.
Recently we surveyed our customers to find out what their top challenges were when they began looking for a 3rd party Open Source support provider.
The #1 answer was: Lack of information that was unique to their specific needs
We heard over and over that the information that they initially received was “generic”, a “blanket solution”, written from a “30,000 foot view”. Our research showed that people in your position are looking for information that is unique to their enterprise to make the most appropriate decision in an efficient amount of time.
I thought it might be appropriate at this point, to share with you, one of our most popular resources, the Support Evaluation Kit Download.
As a result of the feedback we received, the kit will walk you through:
- Detailed analysis of support options including key questions to consider when evaluating these options
- A comprehensive support worksheet that will help you profile your organization’s open source usage and apply support coverage scenarios
- Case studies detailing how OpenLogic’s aggregated support model helps enterprises that use multiple open source packages but lack expertise or don’t want to tie up internal resources with support issues
For those of you that are leveraging open source software to cut costs and accelerate development, can you answer yes to these key questions?
- Are your open source deployments properly tuned and optimized?
- Is your team up to speed on the latest versions and related technologies?
- Is your open source policy up to date, effective, and enforced?
If you answered no to any of the above, your organization may not be getting the full benefits of open source – and may be at risk for problems down the road.
Whether you have been using OSS for years or you are considering a switch, either way, gaps in the internal expertise within your organization may be hurting the potential effectiveness of your open source initiatives.
What are your biggest challenges when searching for an open source support solution?
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