The Enterprise Open Source Blog

Apache HTTP Server: New Features for Version 2.4

Posted by Freddy Andersen on March 12th, 2012 in Open Source Trends, Support

The Apache Foundation released Apache HTTP Server 2.2.0 at the end of 2005. Now 7 years later there is a new major release of Apache HTTP Server. Apache HTTP Server currently has 65% market share according to Netcraft. There has always been two competitors in the web space – Apache and IIS – but in late 2007 Nginx was born and has been grabbing more and more market share everyday. Looking at the release notes for Apache 2.4 you can see that this release has a few features that match Nginx’s feature set. Apache HTTP 2.4 has included something for everyone: performance increases; lower memory usage; new modules; program enhancements and new features for old modules.

I have picked 10 pieces from the change log that I feel are important to know about.

Upcoming Webinar: Choosing the Right Open Source Support Model

Posted by Aaron Mandelbaum on March 9th, 2012 in Open Source Trends, Support

The vast majority of enterprises use open source software projects like Linux, Apache, Tomcat, MySQL, ActiveMQ and others as a significant and growing part of their IT portfolio. And most enterprises work with one or more open source vendors to get commercial grade open source support for the open source software they use.

In order to select the right open source support vendor, it’s important to understand the various vendor business models and how those models impact you.

Cloud Technology: Choosing a Public Cloud Provider

Posted by Rod Cope on March 7th, 2012 in Open Source Trends, Support, The Cloud

As you almost certainly know by now, the world is chock full of cloud providers. Hundreds of them. Which should you choose if you’re just getting started and why?

Like most “which technology should I use?” questions, this one has the typical answer, “it depends.” If you only want to use or “rent” somebody else’s software for maximum convenience, you want a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution. Now that the easy answer is out of the way, let’s get down to business.

IaaS or PaaS?

At first blush, it seems like a simple question: Do you want direct access to the infrastructure (e.g., virtual machines) or do you only need access to abstractions (e.g., API’s)? Ideally, you’d want both. Sometimes you want the convenience of pre-built, hosted, scalable services such as storage (think Amazon’s S3), but other times you’d like the complete flexibility of having root access to a virtual machine under your control. I expect most enterprise developers and IT folks will agree. We want the best of all worlds and we have a hard time giving up control to a pure PaaS provider. This stance tends to rule out options like Google App Engine, Heroku, and others that look like a black box from the outside and put significant restrictions on the programming languages, application frameworks, databases, and other technologies you can deploy on them.

A Beginner’s Guide to DIY Open Source Support

Posted by Peter Williams on February 29th, 2012 in Support

Critical parts of your business’s infrastructure depend on open source software. If you don’t believe me, go find a worker bee in your IT department and ask them. Go ahead, I’ll wait. You need a plan for how to handle problems with that software. Open source software is unfairly reliable but even the best systems will have problems occasionally. In this article we’ll go over some things that will help you get the most of out the open source communities that develop and support the software you use.

Selecting Your Open Source Support Vendors (And What Their Business Model Means to You)

Posted by Kim Weins on February 17th, 2012 in Open Source Trends, Support

The vast majority of enterprises use open source software as a significant and growing part of their IT portfolio. And most enterprises work with one or more open source vendors to get commercial grade open source support for the open source software they use. In order to select the right open source vendors, it’s important to understand their business model and how that model impacts you.
The four most common types of open source support models and the implications for enterprises:

Preparing For Your First Cloud App

Posted by Rod Cope on February 10th, 2012 in Support, The Cloud

There’s a lot of confusion out there around the so-called “cloud app”. What is it, just another term for “SaaS”? Or does it refer to running your own application in a public cloud? As with many phrases that include the ubiquitous word “cloud”, it can mean just about anything. In the context of this post, “cloud app” refers to an application you’re running in a public cloud, such as Amazon AWS or Rackspace Cloud.

Before you put an application in a public cloud, ask yourself the following 4 cloud app preparation questions:

Why to Encourage Software Developers to Debug and Extend Open Source

Posted by Nicholas DiPiazza on February 8th, 2012 in Support

So let’s say your company Acme Inc. hosts several software applications that are based on open source technologies. Your development team seems to be pretty skilled at writing code, and for the most part utilize these open source libraries effectively.

For example, you have a Jboss Application Server hosting your web application (an open source application server), use Maven to manage your dependencies, JMeter to test your software, and so on. All sorts of open source software elements are scattered about.

At this point (whether you realize it or not) – you utilize open source technology heavily and rely on it for your company’s success.

But then during the testing of a production release, you encounter a software bug in your open source library that is a blocker (a “blocker” is a term used to describe a bug that prevents key functionality in your application). In a panic, every one of your developers struggles to find a way to get your release to come out on time.

Thankfully, one of your rock star developers pulls down the source code for the open source library from the internet, gets a build working on this development environment, identifies the issue in the code, fixes the problem, repackages the library, and the updated version of the library is used. Problem solved, disaster prevented, release is on time!

Proprietary Software Support vs. Open Source Support – Common Misconceptions

Posted by Nicholas DiPiazza on January 27th, 2012 in Support

Many people in the business world prefer to use proprietary software instead of open source software due to the misconception that proprietary software is better supported than open source software. After several years of supporting both open source software and proprietary software, it becomes clearly evident that just because you pay for proprietary software does not mean that supporting that software is any easier; in fact, there are plenty of reasons why supporting open source software is actually easier.

Let’s identify the set of steps you would take to handle a support issue for proprietary software.
First, you would have a system administrator consult the software documentation to learn more about the issue at hand to find a solution to the problem. If the administrator cannot resolve the issue with the use of documentation, then do one of the following:

Why Enterprises Need and Value Pre-Paid Technical Open Source Software Support

Posted by Jesse Hood on January 11th, 2012 in Open Source Trends, Support

Pre-paying for open source software technical support and consultative expertise might sound crazy to some of our readers, but it should sound like a very smart and safe business decision. As an industry indicator of the growing need for commercial support on open source software OpenLogic’s support team saw a 39% increase from 2010 t0 2011 in the total number of support incidents submitted during the last calendar year.

I have the pleasure of working with many different client organizations to help them determine if, when and what service level of commercial open source support is right for them. Every time we discuss the options our conversation is a little different from the last, and rightfully so. Evaluating the organizational need for open source technical support depends significantly on where, how, why and when the open source is going to be used. These considerations all most likely revolve around some amount of a formalized open source strategy or open source software policy.

Just about anyone these days will echo the comment, “Nothing is ever really, truly free anymore.” If you agree with this statement to some extent, the rest of this article will summarize a few key reasons why OpenLogic’s enterprise customers purchase (and continue to renew) a subscription for pre-paid support and/or consulting.

Open Source Support: Gaps in Internal Expertise

Posted by Aaron Mandelbaum on December 26th, 2011 in Support

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.

Chances are you’ve found that money can be saved, without compromising functionality, by replacing commercial software with open source. However, with the replacement of commercial software, can come concerns about your team’s open source expertise and preparedness.

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. 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.