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Open for business - part II

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Published: 04Apr2008
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How to recognize 'a pearl'?

Yet, in a maze of Open Source programmes there are real pearls - programmes, which may be used for serious purposes. How can they be recognized?

They have at least one of the following traits. Most of all, they are developed or sponsored by a serious company, public institution or foundation. It guarantees planned, constant development, often compliance with applicable standards, well thought out, open design, programmer's interface and communication with other applications. The examples of such applications are: StarOffice, developed by Sun Microsystems, Apache and related programmes, whose development is sponsored by the foundation established for that purpose, likewise the Python (Python Software Foundation). Another example is Squid, supported by the National Science Foundation ' an equivalent of the Polish Komitet Badań Naukowych.

Trustworthy are Open Source programmes developed by the large team of programmers, which reduce the risk of abandoning work on the project, increase their stability and universality. On the other hand, if the particular package is developed by one or two people and has long history, its authors will not resign so quickly from its development due to the gained experience, emotional bonds and often financial connection with the product.

It is worth choosing among products, which have many users; if an author gives up the project, there will be successors with experienced users to help them. Moreover, the more users, the stronger the pressure on the authors to improve it systematically and adjust to customer's needs.

An Open Source programme should have modular design or flexible programmer's interface, which enable an uncomplicated extension on one's own. Its merit will also be the use of a small number of standard, easily available components and in the case of availability of the source text, development tools should fulfil the conditions.

If the free software packages chosen by a company fulfil these conditions, the risk connected with their implementation and use is minimal. It is to be remembered that the offer of free software includes also academic projects - well functioning, but often created for one particular task (graduation thesis). They are not further developed and do not fulfil the condition of being 'open to the external world', which is ensured by the modular design or API.
Open Source in business

Dirk Hamstra, an independent consultant and columnist, claims that about 30 per cent of business processes in companies have its unique character and may be supported mainly by Open Source software. The programmes with Open Source and open design may be easily adjusted to individual needs, in contrast with closed source software, which has one provider, who gladly covers the remaining 70 per cent of business processes, common for most of the companies. Usually open standards are used in open solutions - as TCP/IP network protocol; the data exchange is provided by XML and Web Services Description Language (WDSL) or Object Access Protocol (SOAP).

An example of a tool which enables the integration of the software inside (Enterprise Application Integration) and outside the company (B2B) may be Openadaptor ' made available as Open Source by the Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein Bank. Created in Java for five million dollars and within three years of work, the programme enables data exchange between various middleware applications using e.g. Java Messaging Service.

Integration of the Open Source applications with the commercial software according to our interlocutors (see statements) is seamless. A producer of Varico software from Poznań adjusted to his needs the system of monitoring errors and bugs in the created programmes Bugzilla. One of the modifications was the integration of Bugzilla with the company's data base of the clients and Varico software licenses. One of the Varico applications under development will also be integrated with the error monitoring system.

According to Adam Dawidziuk, the Director of Solutions 7bulls.com department, for the customers using services of business Open Source applications, the problem of integration is 'transparent', an integrator carries out the operation. Often the solutions which assure communication between applications also come from Open Source.

The problems do not end with the choice of software ' important is also to assure the continuity of the computer installations and employees' work. The first issue can be solved by an administrator with suitable skills, the second one by the training of users.

It seems that the developed Microsoft training network and the universality of Windows ease the recruitment of staff for systems operating in this environment. That is probably the cause of the already quoted opinion of the Cybersource authors. The opinion is divided. According to Pawel Moszumański, the IT director of EGIS Polska, who was earlier responsible for the implementation of Linux in Jan III Sobieski hotel "It's easier to find a good Unix (Linux) and application/services administrator than Microsoft Windows administrator". "The training itself is cheaper than in the case of Microsoft Windows, because everybody who graduated any IT studies is knowledgeable about Unix administration." The access to the documentation and literature is also easier in the case of Open Source products, the awareness of what is going on 'inside' the system is also greater.

It can be easier to find an administrator than to prepare the users. Theoretically, people knowing the rules of the work with particular applications should have no problems with switching to new software. However, according to Paweł Moszumański, "the IT culture" is based on courses teaching the operation of specific programmes, and not the rules of how to use IT tools, and migration to new software may be difficult. Helpful will be here the possibility of spreading the implemented software without licence limitations, the programmes used in a company may be installed on employees' home PCs.

For a few years the use of Open Source software has ceased to be a risky experiment. It does not have to mean difficulties or losses. It is installed not only because the company cannot afford the purchase of commercial software. The participation of major producers of business software in Open Source made this form of creating programmes credible in the managers' eyes. Reliability, flexibility, openness, easiness to develop and short reaction time for emerging problems ' these are the arguments of the Open Source interest group. The competitors grown at the giants' side has definitely contributed much, also to the commercial products.

For the Polish companies Open Source is the opportunity to reduce operation costs. It is also a possibility to alleviate the conflict with the law and software producers, although not necessarily as the latter would prefer. It is also an opportunity to have insight into the programming technologies and to develop on this basis the programmes for one's own needs. However, as it results from our interlocutors' statements, a serious obstacle in the use of Open Source solutions is still the reluctance to take full responsibility for the operation of the installed applications.

This article was translated by mLingua Worldwide Translations, Ltd. mLingua provides professional language translations in all major Western and Asian languages, software localization and web site translation services. Please visit http://mlingua.pl

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