10 Reasons Why Companies Choose OpenLogic for OSS Support
As shown in the 2024 State of Open Source Report, organizations around the world today are consuming and contributing to open source software more than ever before. But successfully using open source in business-critical applications requires dependable OSS support.
In this blog, we discuss the top 10 reasons why companies choose OpenLogic by Perforce for their OSS support, and why that support is critical to harnessing the true innovative potential of OSS.
Why Companies Need OSS Support
The building blocks of all applications today are based on open source software, and the number of open source tools around DevOps, cloud-native technologies, and AI is growing at a fast pace. But what is driving that growth? For the second consecutive year, the State of Open Source Report shows that the number one reason organizations are using open source software is to gain access to innovations and the latest technologies.
For those adopting open source software, acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills to be able to integrate, operate, and maintain community open source technologies is a constant challenge. Self-support is limited to organizations’ collective expertise, community forums, and online documentation.
The Top 10 Reasons Companies Choose OpenLogic for OSS Support
For over 20 years, OpenLogic has offered expert technical support for open source software to organizations around the world. While there are many reasons why teams ultimately choose OpenLogic for open source software support, below we list 10 commonly cited reasons that make us their top choice.
1. Enterprise Technical Support and Services for Over 400 Open Source Packages
No other company in the world can offer expert enterprise-grade technical support for so many open source technologies. This includes a large variety of open source Linux distributions, databases and data technologies, middleware, DevOps tooling, and more.
Every organization is usingopen source software extensively, as part of their business-critical software infrastructure. For our customers, OpenLogic is a “one-stop shop” that guarantees a yearly support contract for some or most of the open source software used in their development or production environments.
OpenLogic provides peace of mind for organizations that need expert support and advice for the complexity of configuring, testing, scaling, or integrating open source software. From one technology to full open source software stacks, OpenLogic has the broadest coverage of open source software.
2. Direct Support From Technical Enterprise Architects With 15+ Years of Experience
Unlike many tech support or call support centers, OpenLogic customers interact directly with expert technical enterprise architects on every reported incident. This expertise is ideal for assistance with complicated integrations, installations, and configurations of open source software.
Whether that means assisting during upgrades between releases, advising on configuration changes for critical scalability on large deployments, or maintaining optimal performance, OpenLogic customers are working directly with our team of enterprise architects that have real-life experience in subsets of open source technologies. For every technology we support, we have experts with years of experience who are directly accessible to our customers.
3. Consistent Access to OSS Expertise, Regardless of Staffing Churn or Technology Shifts
From not having enough personnel to staffing churn when resources with the necessary skills and experience are absent, organizations turn to OpenLogic to cover those gaps.
The advancement of open source technologies and the adoption of different technology stacks have become significant challenges for organizations. Lack of internal skills often prevents organizations from being able to use and support open source software properly. For large organizations, although the personnel are sometimes available, they do not always have the experience and proficiency required for managing complex open source software. Moving to new open source technologies or staying with legacy open source software is also restricted by the lack of expertise.
For either staffing churn or technology advancement, OpenLogic is the vendor of choice for many organizations who want to ensure coverage for those skill gaps.
4. Meet IT Compliance Requirements
Internal or external IT compliance refers to best practices, internal controls, and security policies that protect an organization's IT infrastructure. When open source software is deployed in organizations, there are no exceptions. PCI-DSS, CIS Controls, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and other regulations require fully supported software and updates to the latest releases and patches.
The 2024 State of Open Source Report once again showed that one of the top three support challenges with open source software is keeping up with updates and patches. Updates for enhancements, or to address bugs and vulnerability fixes, has become a constant challenge for IT operations and development teams.
OpenLogic’s deep expertise with OSS release life cycles — and history of providing long-term support with patches for end-of-life open source software such as CentOS and AngularJS — has become a significant reason why organizations choose OpenLogic technical support to meet both internal and external IT compliance requirements.
5. Deep Experience Integrating Open Source Packages Into Full-Stack Deployments
Every day, OpenLogic enterprise architects are busy answering questions related to how to use and integrate open source technologies such as networking, containers, middleware, databases, and data technologies.
Why? Integration and interoperability between all the open source software that comprise technology stacks is seldom straightforward. OpenLogic customers receive assistance configuring open source software in cloud and distributed architectures when they need to scale up environments and even during software migrations.
Our customers use a variety of open source infrastructure software that is mature and stable, but when changes are required, the interrelation between the parts of technology stacks is complex enough to necessitate assistance from OpenLogic's experts.
Explore OpenLogic Pricing and Plans
For two decades, OpenLogic has partnered with Fortune 100 companies to drive growth and innovation with open source software. Click the button below to receive a custom quote for technical support, LTS, or professional services.
6. Vendor Consolidation for Enterprise Technical Support
One of the drawbacks of the commercialization of open source software has been that organizations now work with an increased number of vendors. For example, organizations can deploy different commercial Linux distributions, or pay for a commercial version of open source databases such as PostgreSQL, which is offered by more than five vendors. The number of vendors offering a commercial version of open source software adds up quickly.
Not only do organizations consolidate all their open source support requirements with OpenLogic as a cost-saving measure, but doing so also allows them to avoid falling into vendor lock-in where they are subject to price increases or required to work only with the services and integrations provided by those vendors. Support from OpenLogic provides a way for companies to reduce licensing and support costs significantly while ensuring the ability to request technical support for their software operations.
If customers want to implement different open source software, they have the freedom to switch technologies while being backed by a single vendor: OpenLogic.
7. Full OSS Stack Support, No Finger-Pointing
One of the most common misconceptions is that paying for proprietary software or commercial open source software will cover all support needs. In this day and age of growing open source technology stacks and diverse technologies, it’s just easy for vendors to point fingers at each other when issues are touching two or more technologies.
Because OpenLogic provides technical support and services for over 400 open source packages, it offers unique advantages in researching and troubleshooting the required open source stack without finger-pointing and helps customers get back to their required operations and functionalities.
Our customer’s developers and operations engineers are more productive when they focus on their tasks instead of spending time troubleshooting full stack operational issues. OpenLogic makes customers more efficient by taking care of their open source software support needs.
8. Unbiased, Vendor-Neutral Guidance
Because OpenLogic is brand-agnostic and does not offer software, customers can count on our technical enterprise architects to determine the best technology for their needs. We provide recommendations based on the customers’ specific needs rather than on sponsorships or commercial interests.
Whether the customer needs a recommendation on a Linux distribution, or which database can best solve their unique needs, OpenLogic enterprise architects provide unbiased expert advice tailored to specific customer requirements. At the end of the day, OpenLogic does not offer software; it provides unbiased technical support and services for organizations using open source software.
9. Commercial Service-Level Agreement Support Options
SLAs are a must-have for enterprise-grade technical support, and OpenLogic customers receive open source technical support with options to meet SLAs. SLAs are not available in open source communities, which is why OpenLogic provides SLA-backed support with an unlimited number of support tickets and an unlimited number of contacts who can work directly with our team of expert, technical enterprise architects.
OpenLogic offers 24/7/365 global support with different SLA options for response and resolution times. Customers can receive 24/7 assistance anywhere in the world, with response times according to ticket severity.
10. Enterprise-Grade OSS Support, Regardless of Infrastructure or Environment
Today’s organizations host their applications in diverse environments, from on-premises to public clouds, or hybrid environments. The use of multiple Linux distributions and different open source infrastructure software is commonly seen across organizations. OpenLogic supports customers regardless of their infrastructure or environment; there are no platform restrictions or limitations in the amount of support provided.
Final Thoughts
Supporting all your open source packages internally can put a drain on resources and take developers' focus away from where it should be: innovating for your business. Partnering with OpenLogic allows you to take advantage of free community open source but with the added security of guaranteed SLAs and 24/7 support delivered by experts with deep OSS expertise.
Watch the video below to see one of our Enterprise Architects describing how we work with teams when problems arise to reach a resolution quickly and painlessly.
Solving Open Source Software Issues: Tips From an Enterprise Architect
Editor's note: This blog was originally published on March 31, 2022 and was updated in April 2023 for relevance and accuracy.
Back to top