When making the decision to embrace Open Source Technologies for Enterprise, it’s critical for organizations to understand how these technologies can benefit them by creating a balance of freedom, collaboration, flexibility, and speed to market required for success.
Some of the greatest music of all time came about by blending influences, rhythms, and inspiration from multiple genres. Depending on who you ask, the answer to the question, “what is the greatest musical collaboration of all time?” varies significantly. Personally, I think the remake of Walk this Way by Aerosmith and Run DMC is one of the greatest musical collaborations of all time. The song creates a bridge between two genres of music that appear to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. Rap music, while rising in popularity, was still misunderstood when Walk this Way came out, while rock music was a staple of the 80s. However, once released, the song (and subsequent video), broke down the walls between the two genres, and, as Joe Perry put it, demonstrated what can happen “when glitter meets gold”.
With this beautiful and unexpected union in mind, let’s consider Open Source technologies for Enterprise. When making the decision to embrace Open Source Technologies for Enterprise, it’s critical for organizations to understand how these technologies can benefit them by creating a balance of freedom, collaboration, flexibility, and speed to market required for success.
Just gimme a beat!
For too long, organizations have felt the frustrations of being bound by the proprietary software they use. Unable to influence the price, priority or timetable of updates, or the vision of the vendor, there’s a limit to what can be done to create the custom solution their organization needs. But, with Free Open Source Software (FOSS), because the community is in control of the software, they are able to control, shape, modify, and use the software the way you want. As Bernard Golden, vice president of strategy for ActiveState Software, notes, “By allowing anyone to contribute code, it allows an Open Source product to incorporate unusual use cases, which a proprietary vendor would either ignore or dismiss”. As well, since this type of the software is available to a worldwide community of users and developers, users everywhere benefit from frequent updates, changes, and “remixes” implemented by other users leveraging the software.
We need more cowbell
Using Open Source software, organizations are no longer bound by intensive upgrades that were once pushed down to organizations by the software giants, without providing a real benefit that warranted the effort to upgrade. Since Open Source traditionally follows a gradual progression of technology, it restores the power to the users, allowing them to determine if and when it’s time to upgrade. Providing this flexibility returns the decision-making and control to the organization, truly making them the “conductor” of their success.
We can’t drive 55…
While the collaboration, freedom, and flexibility that Open Source technology provides is invaluable, these benefits alone are not enough to deliver Enterprise solutions to market, quickly and efficiently. This is where the unexpected mash-up comes in. Enter: Microsoft. While some view Microsoft as an unlikely collaborator with Open Source technologies, Microsoft’s increasing focus on openness, and the fact that the majority of Azure marketplace workloads are Linux based, positions Azure as the perfect duet partner for Open Source. Using Azure, organizations are able to develop, test, release, and manage solutions built with Open Source technology and hosted on the Cloud.
Open Source technology is transforming the landscape of Enterprise. As the desire for organizations to create and work with custom based solutions increases, so too does the emphasis on and importance of Open Source technology in the mainstream. This blend offers the best of both worlds - and that’s sweet, sweet music to everyone’s ears.
Curious how your Enterprise could benefit from Open Source on Azure? We’d love to connect with you.
