IT Business


	The open = source=20 experience

	Our = series concludes=20 with a look at where enterprises are using non-proprietary = software. Looks=20 like those traditional IT infrastructure projects were just the=20 beginning Part II: The open source decision Part I: The open source = attitude
	4/30/2007 = 4:50:00=20 PM
	by Vawn=20 Himmelsbach

Open source is generally recognized as a = platform for=20 infrastructure, the foundation upon = which things=20 are built. But the business-specific applications built on top of = that are=20 a harder sell.

The jury is still = out on=20 whether open source is extending into areas beyond its traditional = strengths, said Evan Leibovitch, executive = director of=20 CLUE (Canadian Linux Users Exchange). =93When you have something = in your=20 business that you don't want your competitors to necessarily = share, the=20 rationale for open source isn't quite as strong,=94 he = said.

Open=20 source has traditionally been a good fit with horizontal, rather = than=20 vertical, applications - where it stretches across industries, or = where=20 there's a generic function like word processing. But the = =93high-hanging=20 fruit=94 is still proprietary, said Leibovitch, and one of the = best examples=20 of that right now is Oracle.

While Oracle supports = Red Hat=20 Linux, for example, and is comfortable with leaving the = creation=20 of the underlying infrastructure to a third party, = industry-specific=20 applications are still Oracle's territory.

=93The further = you get=20 away from the infrastructure, the harder it is to work with open = source,=94=20 he said. =93You may start to see more of these co-operative = ventures, (but)=20 that model is just in its infancy. There's still a lot of maturing = to be=20 done.=94

Right now, open source is most commonly used for = application=20 development, according to Info-Tech Research = Group. =93It's=20 not as if it's an investment in the infrastructure per se,=94 said = Curtis=20 Gittens, senior research analyst with Info-Tech. =93It's a tool, = so the risk=20 there is low.=94 People will build a non-critical Web application = or=20 front-end using Perl or Python.

The second highest level of = adoption is within networking and connectivity on the = back-end.=20 Following that is security software for access control and = management. =93It's not like using an open source version of a = McAfee,=94 said=20 Gittens. =93It's more for access control.=94

More Canadians = than=20 Americans are adopting open source operating systems, such as = Linux. But=20 there is less interest in using open source for financial and=20 administrative applications, particularly in Canada. Areas where = it's=20 emerging include customer relationship management (CRM) and = contact=20 management, as well as enterprise resource planning applications. = But it=20 hasn't quite moved into the area of business intelligence=20 yet.

In the health-care sector there's not that = much=20 deployment of open source, at least in Canada, said Dr. = Khaled El=20 Emam, associate professor at the University of Ottawa and = author=20 of The ROI from Software Quality. Reasons for this include issues = of=20 robustness, security and compliance.

=93I'm=20 not talking about running your Web server,=94 he said. The = health-care=20 sector, for example, has large, complex systems, and the incumbent = vendors=20 have been around for many years.

There's generic open = source, such=20 as operating systems, databases, Web services and content = management=20 systems. Then there's domain-specific open source, which requires = domain=20 expertise. And if you're talking about health-care applications, = you need=20 people who understand health care. =93When we looked at open = source for=20 medical applications, a lot of the people developing it did not = have a=20 software development background,=94 said El Emam. =93They were = physicians,=20 clinicians - it was a different group of people.=94

The = issue lies=20 with modifying code =96 whether an organization has the money and=20 development team to maintain millions of lines of code, or whether = they=20 should pay for a version that someone else is going to maintain = for=20 them.

But awareness is increasing about what good open = source can=20 do, said Ross Chevalier, CTO/CIO of Novell Canada. Some users,=20 particularly in academia, are looking at Linux on the desktop = because of=20 the cost differential =96 and the fact there are some good = end-user=20 applications out there. It may not be right for 100 per cent of = users, he=20 said, such as those using Windows-specific applications, for = example. But=20 for generic office users doing generic office things, such as mail = and=20 browsing, open source could be a good fit.

For = Windsor=20 Public Library, with 200 staff members in 10 branches, = open=20 source is becoming standard across the organization, from its = public=20 access Internet terminals to back-end systems. The library has = about 250=20 PCs, and uses almost everything, including NetWare, Unix, Solaris, = Linux=20 and Windows.

=93Our first experience with open source was = with our=20 public access Internet terminals,=94 said Marc Pillon, manager of=20 information technology with Windsor Public Library. =93Primarily = it's more=20 bang for the buck =96 we could deliver to our users more services = using open=20 source software for the same amount of money (as) a closed source = system.=94=20 The library is also experimenting with Suse Linux on the=20 desktop.

=93I'm hoping by the end of the year a great = majority=20 of our back-end systems will be running on open source software as = well as=20 a good portion of desktops, both public access and staff,=94 he = said. In=20 some cases, this could require retraining of staff, but he says = the money=20 invested is easily recoverable. For Pillon, it's about not being = tied to=20 any one particular methodology.

Down the=20 road, this could expand into an open source library catalogue = system,=20 which is already being used in the U.S.

But open source = isn't a fit=20 for everyone. Homestead Christian Care is a = non-profit=20 charity providing supportive housing to about 140 people in = Hamilton and=20 Woodstock, Ont. For three years it had an entirely open source=20 environment, including Red Hat, as well as OpenOffice as its main = office=20 tool. Two years ago, it switched to a Windows=20 environment.

=93Originally we went the Linux and open = source route=20 because we believed it would be cheaper as a non-profit = charity,=94 said=20 Jeff Neven, director of operations with Homestead = Christian Care. =93Our stakeholders require we do things the most=20 cost-effective way.=94 In the end, it was costing the organization = more, he=20 said, because Homestead relied on third-party IT support, and = downtime was=20 becoming a problem.

=93Staff productivity was lower because = they=20 didn't know how to use the software,=94 he said. =93There's always = fixes (to=20 problems), it's just the downtime. We were at the point where we = were=20 looking at hiring someone to provide training and IT.=94

Organizations = should=20 consider whether an application is appropriate for their = environment, said=20 Info-Tech's Gittens. And that issue applies to any type of = software. They=20 should also make sure they have people in-house who understand the = software, the language and the architecture of the application, = and that=20 the vendor or integrator has adequate support.

=93There are = still a=20 lot of people that doubt open source even as a mainframe = infrastructure=20 component, so it's not as if that job is finished,=94 said CLUE's=20 Leibovitch. The traditional strengths of open source are = continuing to=20 make their way into the mainstream, while we're starting to see = pockets of=20 industry-specific applications. But for quite some time we're = going to see=20 =93the Oracle model,=94 he said, where proprietary = industry-specific=20 applications sit on top of open source standardized=20 platforms.

=93Open source isn't necessarily the answer to = every=20 question,=94 he said. =93I have very little doubt that for most = infrastructure=20 needs, open source is the better way to go. The further you get = from=20 infrastructure and the closer you get to things that are highly = industry=20 or business specific, that's where things get cloudy.=94

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