The future is open
THE YEAR HAS HARDLY BEGUN and already European Union regulators have renewed investigations into Microsoft’s alleged anti-competitive practices. With the objective of squeezing out rivals in office software, the controversial giant stands accused of failing to adhere to two previous court rulings handed down last September.
One required Microsoft to share interoperability information for several of its products – including its Office suite, servers and .NET framework. Microsoft has also allegedly failed to comply with a court ruling that it illegally tied Internet explorer to Windows, which stems from a complaint filed by open source web browser developer Opera.
Despite the software behemoth’s apparent anti-competitive practices, open source software has in recent years begun to move into the mainstream marketplace previously dominated by products such as Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Office productivity suite.
The rate of adoption in the global mid-size enterprise market of, among other open source applications, the Linux operating system (www.linux.org), Mozilla’s Firefox web browser (www.mozilla.org) and the Open Office Productivity Suite (www.openoffice.org) shows that Microsoft’s dominance is on the wane, says Anton de Wet, co-director at leading South African open source vendor Obsidian.
Other open source applications fast gaining acceptance in SA – a market that’s leading adoption in Africa – include Ubuntu Linux, MySql, Redhat and JBoss. Although De Wet would not give a precise figure, there are probably 3m Linux users in the global IT market, with large companies, especially in the financial services sector, leading its adoption in SA.
In the face of shrinking IT budgets, a bullish De Wet anticipates migration from proprietary to open source to intensify this year. By opting for open source, SA banking group First National Bank – its cellphone banking platform runs on open source – says the software has significantly helped cut its IT spend. Len Pienaar, head of FNB cellphone banking, says: “We’ve also been impressed with the level of scalability and flexibility of open source. As a result, other divisions within the group are considering overhauling their legacy software.”
Anthony Gold, vice-president and GM: open source at global IT group Unisys, says many rapidly developing markets – such as those of China and the Asian Pacific region – have first generation IT infrastructure in which proprietary applications haven’t widely been deployed.
Says Gold: “In Europe, state and local governments – and even the EU – are driving adoption of open source and Africa should emulate that path. The African market, where vendors of proprietary software don’t have a significant presence, visibility or distributorship and where typical licence charges are prohibitive to adoption, is better suited to lead open source adoption.”
However, despite the hype in the marketplace, Andreas Bitterer, an analyst at research house Gartner, warns that it’s not yet “prime time” for open source. Although the download figures claimed by open source vendors appear staggering – often in millions – Bitterer says actual deployment in significant production environments remains less than 1m. “It must be noted that greenfield opportunities that can spur adoption exist primarily among midsize enterprises. The majority of those midsize enterprises have a preference for Microsoft, which also provides low-cost, tool-centric software.”
Compared to open source software, Microsoft also boasts strong vendor viability, a wide network of value-added reseller partners, a widely adopted NET or visual studio development environment and broad software applications, including database and portals.
More than Microsoft’s dominance, Desan Naidoo, sales director at open source vendor Novell, says the cost of migrating is the biggest factor hindering adoption. “Considering that you’ve got to re-skill your entire workforce when you migrate, large enterprises prefer to stick with proprietary software given that cost burden,” says Naidoo.
Whatever way you look at it, consensus in the industry is that proprietary software remains the lone elephant in the room.
Finweek
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