Open Source Software, Essay Example

Open source software is defined as “software for which the human-readable source code is available for use, study, reuse, modification, enhancement, and redistribution by the users of that software” (Kennedy 42). Many organizations around the globe have adopted open source software after realizing optimal cost savings associated with information technology expenditures. One example includes Amazon .com minimizing information technology expenditures from $71 million to $54 million by replacing their business automation software with open source applications. Similarly, sabre holdings were able to save more than $10 billion dollars by deploying MySQL that is an open source database. As these open source software are free of cost, organizations started replacing legacy systems with open source products. This trend has forced hardware and software vendors along with proprietary technology vendors to offer value added services associated with open source products.  For example, an open source enterprise resource planning application for Small medium business can be a cost saving alternative for expensive ERP systems such as SAP and Oracle.  However, the existence of these open source applications does not ensure proficient after sales or maintenance support and their functionality that can be catered by a consultant or advisory service. Likewise, these open source software are volunteered without proper marketing strategies possibly because of their low budget. A comparison between an open source application and MS office is demonstrated in Table 1.1 below

Table 1.1

After discussing benefits for open source software, we will now discuss the barriers for organizations adopting open source software. The first factor is the knowledge barrier, as discussed before, lack of available support, consultants, customization and lack of business knowledge for aligning the application with business objectives. The second barrier is a lack of integration with the legacy software and hardware. Likewise, Forking is another barrier because open source software is coded by different groups of people and may not integrate with other open source software. Moreover, the technology associated with open source software is immature i.e. not tested nor does it have a successful history. However, in order to overcome these challenges, organizations must train their staff and hire third party support and maintenance services. Moreover, for eliminating integration issues with legacy systems, middleware can be used for supporting integration functions. Furthermore, for addressing forking, self-resolving capabilities with the aid of self-managed standards is required. In addition, to address software immaturity, organizations must follow open source software maturity models and white papers for proper evaluation.