THE DEVELOPER PORTAL FOR SOA
THE DEVELOPER PORTAL FOR SOA
Submitted on October 12, 2008 - 04:20.
In this article, Ayanthi Anandagoda discusses the evolving landscape of open source software development that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process..
In a document titled The Open Source Paradigm Shift[1],Tim O'reilly eloquently describes the early beginnings of a creation of a software empire..
'..IBM chose to build its computer from off the shelf components, opening up its design for cloning by other manufacturers. As a result, the IBM personal computer architecture became the standard, over time displacing not only other personal computer designs, but over the next two decades, minicomputers and mainframes.'
He further illustrates how IBM failed to understand the full consequences of their decisions at a time when their market share in desktop computers far exceeded Microsoft dominance of the desktop operating system, and gave away the right to resell the software and left it beyond IBM's control..
'As cloned personal computers were built by thousands of manufacturers large and small, IBM lost its leadership in the new market. Software became the new sun that the industry revolved around; Microsoft, not IBM, became the most important company in the computer industry.
Finally, he makes a statement, as to how Dell managed to capture the wider market share, selling the 'commodity computer', that side-kicked IBM's dominance in the market with the blink of an eye lid.
It took an outsider, Michael Dell, who began his company selling mail order PCs from a college dorm room, to realize that a standardized PC was a commodity, and that marketplace advantage came not from building a better PC, but from building one that was good enough, lowering the cost of production by embracing standards, and seeking advantage in areas such as marketing, distribution, and logistics. In the end, it was Dell, not IBM or Compaq, who became the largest PC hardware vendor.'
If you still doubt building products that are only good enough in order to generate sales leads? May be you should ask Apple how they sold billions of ipods to a market already saturated with hundreds of different types of mp3 players.
Also known as FLOSS, free and open source software when correctly interpreted, stands for software developed with open collaboration and shared source code.The promise of open source is better quality, increased reliability, flexibility/custom, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-ins. The definition of free in FOSS, is as in 'free speech' and not as in 'free beer'. Where free beer represents software made available at no financial cost (which also includes freeware, trialware and shareware), free speech refers to the software freedom that is four folds[2] 
Open source software development model comprises a distributed community of developers producing software code that is made freely available for the purposes of sharing, modification and redistribution. Inline with the copyleft law, FOSS approach recognizes that innovation comes from 'standing on the shoulders of giants'. Therefore the only restriction in the open source mantra, is that whatever produced out of the source code, must also be open source with relevant notices respected.
Research shows,[3] far from just software engineering poorly done, that open-source represents a different approach to software development as compared to closed-source, that is based on community building with process and product transparency. Transparency is almost always, a hall mark of confidence.
For the most part, market share for FOSS products is extremely hard to measure, as users are able to simply download code, modify, install and run the software anonymously. Research tells us that, the use of open source software in the industry is not ad-hoc or casual. According to Forrester, large enterprises in Europe and North America are actively using or piloting open source software for mission-critical applications and infrastructure[4]. Further, the document states that while overall use is higher in Europe, North American companies are more likely to have embraced open source for mission-critical use.
The software market talks about complete open source stacks that offer complete open source platforms consisting of an OS, application server, database and language support for the more formal use of the software. For Web applications, widespread combination of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl/Python/PHP has resulted in the acronym: LAMP. IBM, Sun, Oracle and WSO2 are leveraging open source products within their software offerings.
There seems an increase trend in adopting open source in the enterprise deployment. Some compelling reasons for open source adoption include improved IT efficiency, better product/process quality, reduced time to market, improved innovation and increased competition placed on existing service offerings with a $0 price tag. It appears that, open source communities are quicker in delivering critical enterprise components (including security patches and feature enhancements) due to their reduced overheads with relation to PR and project scheduling considerations. This wrapped with the Scylla and Charybdis of 'do more with less' today's enterprise IT faces in the current slow economy, open source is an extremely compelling proposition.
As David Wheeler documents on "Why Open Source Software/Free Software (OSS/FS, FLOSS or FOSS)? Look At The Numbers?"[5] there are numerous challenges organizations and governments considering open source solutions face. A major challenge is in attempts to publish benchmark results comparing open source products with their proprietary counterparts, where clauses put by closed source vendors prohibits open source vendors from publishing such results.
Retail as the most familiar economic paradigm, and only 1/3rd of all software developed is ever sold in the retail market (the rest custom built), shrink-wrapped software does not come out as the major player in the software market. Open source software is gaining increasing momentum by the day, and seems to be appreciated for different reasons in different parts of the world. More for software quality and flexibility in licensing than merely as an inexpensive solution. In a recent post made by Larry Augustin on 'Commercial Open Source in Europe Versus the US'[6] states 'It appears that the adoption of open source is made for different reasons in different parts of the world. Our motivation in the US is to build the next generation of software companies. But in Europe that’s not the case. Here there is a natural desire to build a local software economy and Open Source offers that opportunity. That’s a major motivating factor in the adoption of Open Source. In the US the Open Source nature of the software is almost irrelevant to a company’s buying decision. The US buyers want better, cheaper software and a better relationship with vendors; all of which Open Source helps create for them. But they are not so interested in the source code itself nor in how access to the code created those benefits.'
Choice of software for the enterprise rests on its ability to meet requirements. In evaluating such fitness in an objective manner, methods that adapts to specific characteristics of open source software is needed. While proprietary vendors spend considerable resources marketing their software products, acquirers should pay additional attention to equivalent open source offerings, considering that hallmarks of FOSS software is in their flexibility that promotes customization. More times than not, open source offerings are easily modifiable to meet the acquirer's needs, considering transparency in code/process and skills of the associated communities.
FOSS project Web sites and communities provide a lot more than program copies. Users can almost always tap into a wealth of information that provides for evaluation of the software, with user/developer mailing lists, project forums, code repositories and documentation included.
As no system exists in isolation, it is paramount that an evaluation process evaluate the software for its confirmation to various standards where ever they apply. FOSS products typically implement relevant standards that avoids any lock-ins as a way of promoting wider use of their software
A comprehensive discussion on detailed evaluation techniques for open source software for their suitability is available in a documentation title 'How to Evaluate Open Source Software/ Free Software Programs'[7], which also contains additional links to many related resources.
Open source is where the openness of code sits together with the collaboration of process in creating a unique culture that fosters innovation and availability. The following is a list of its most evident features:
Software critical industries including telecommunication companies and financials are increasingly adopting open source to sharpen their competitive edge. There are a number of ways in which open-source development surpasses traditional software development and the benefits include:
The proliferation of open source projects are no where more evident than in the thousands open source project project listings in code repositories such as SourceForge, Ohloh, freshmeat, CodeHaus and Open Symphony. Download numbers on SourceForge closing a billion for the half year in 2008 (only accounting the downloads at the main server only). Afkham Azeez recently reported on Impressive Axis2 download numbers at Apache main server[8]. Although much of the earlier versions of Apple's MacOS were entirely proprietary, more recent version (such as the Mac OS X) are based on a Mach 3.0 and FreeBSD[9] withOpen source laid the foundation for giant Web 2.0 companies like Facebook, YouTube and Salesforce. Google - the cathedral of free - have built all their innovative business offerings on open source.
With almost every large public technology company having embraced open source to one degree or another, can open source bring revenue for individual developers or their commercial counterparts? Opponents argue that the open source movement destroys the software market and reduces developer employment opportunities. Is open source an economically viable solution for IT?
.. Chris Anderson argues[10].
BIND, the mission-critical application that Internet runs on, for over decades the application has survived on donations and consultation. On the other hand, domain name registration service that is based on BIND, became a business bringing a wealth of opportunity to commercial entities build around the software. As Tim O'Reilley writes, 'the Intel Inside opportunity of the DNS was not a software opportunity at all, but the service of managing the namespace used by the software'.
A hall mark of open source software, yet source code access is not the defining reason behind the open source adoption. Support does. Contrary to the popular belief that support is little or non-existent in the open source world, almost all established open source projects are at a minimum backed by free support through mailing lists and community forums. Open source community support for projects arrive in the form of forums, patches and product feedback. The 1997 InfoWorld the award of 'Best Technical Support' trophy to the 'Linux user group' confirms the power that forums leverage in open source software development.
Built on concepts that the expertise that resulted in the code is more valuable than the code itself, support becomes the open source product and software the tool for demonstrating expertise. Open source is economically sustainable and of tremendous value to an economy. Even more so, in times of economic depress[11]. Companies like Red Hat have recognized the business model and have built their businesses around it. Apache Web services projects are backed by support from WSO2. WSO2 offers the open source SOA software stack, the community and the commercial infrastructure that offer commercial support. The WSO2 alternative offers its community fully open source software products, without feature-limited community versions together with subscription packages for support.
Further more, companies such as SourceLabs offer dependable open source support and maintenance of open source infrastructure software. Those with dependency on a given product/(s) offer 'organic' support, while still others, offer support them for all of their OSS/FS. Linux distributors, such as Red Hat and Novell/SuSE, are obvious potential candidates. Many large companies, such as IBM, thrive on support in general. Other companies, such as OpenLogic, SourceLabs, and so on, provide OSS/FS support for a fee. The Enterprise Open Source Directory (EOS) provides an interactive Request For Advice forum (RFA) that enables organizations to post their specific requirements and receive advice from knowledgeable peers and open source community members. The approach results in a more objective assessment that traditional RFP responses that are heavily biased by the vendor completing the response.
Employment for programmers, analysts and business decision makers continues to exist in open source and continues to generate revenue for the commercial vendor in the form of maintenance, custom developments and consultation. Enterprise pay the bill and in turn receives products at a fraction of the cost of building them from scratch. For mission critical systems with crucial support requirements open source vendors offer additional support options, including training, license indemnification, installation assistance, remote management and custom development. As opposed to the proprietary business model where support is tied down to the purchase of the product license., the open source business model shifts system risks from the user back to the vendor by isolating software and support. Competition created by open source products in itself created a buyers' market, not forgetting that FOSS software also competes against each other. Unlike proprietary vendors dropping support over time leaving users no where, open source continues to back up its users. Value of open source is such that it would not diminish simply because a seller goes out of business or projects strategy direction changes.
There is a shift in the FOSS development towards paid development by experienced developers. IBM, Sun, Red Hat and WSO2 are prime examples. Majority of most successful open source projects are well funded by governments and universities, and can be said are fed indirectly from the savings made using the software in government and education. Still, there are considerable numbers in the open source developer community, who consider the incentive for their contribution the larger user base and an impressive resume who far out weighs any monetory gains that could be made by selling the software.
On unfair competitive advantage for $0 tag and open source ability to beating the big boys in the game, Ganesh Prasad writes[12]
'We realize it is not possible for any supplier to charge less for a product than it cost them to produce it. That would mean a loss. At the same time, if all products in a category are roughly alike in function, and there are plenty of suppliers for those products, it is not possible for any of them to charge significantly more than their competitors without pricing themselves out of the market. So they should all end up charging just slightly more than it cost them to make the product, making only modest profits in the process. The underlying assumption here, though, is that we have pure competition. This situation is similar to the story of the two men who come upon a tiger in the jungle. One of them starts putting on his running shoes. "Are you crazy?" whispers the other, "You can't hope to outrun a tiger!" "I don't have to outrun the tiger," explains the first, "I only have to outrun you!"
Open source development model is nothing new. The process of creating scientific knowledge has taken the same path for centuries. However, it wasn't long ago, that open source software was conceived as just work of hobbyists. Times have changed and as we see it now, open source has already changed the software business irrevocably. Today, it is mainstream with backbones of enterprise systems at countless businesses large and small. In fact, the entire Internet infrastructure is build from open source components such as DNS and TCP/IP with the Internet itlsef as the greatest open source enabler.
The document is a look at open source process and argues, that in time to come, shrink-wrapped software may become the exception.
Ayanthi Anandagoda is Manager - Content Development at WSO2. ayanthi at wso2 dot com
