AT&T uses open source to assure dominance
How can anyone compete with AT&T if it has open source religion?
Someone needs to figure that out, because they do. AT&T is an investor in OpenClovis, which offers an open source application service platform for the telecom industry.
This week OpenClovis announced several projects aimed at integrating its platform with important computing resources, like databases, online transaction processing, and the like.
Vice president-marketing Subbu Iyer said that going open source shortens sales cycles and evaluation processes. The company also offers a commercial license for companies that want to build proprietary tools on the platform.
"Companies building broadband access controllers or wireless infrastructure equipment" are a major source of revenues, he said, but the software is also downloaded by carriers.
Which leads him to brag on AT&T.
"One reason AT&T invested in us is they do see the adoption of OpenClovis software helps them drive costs down in the network." Proprietary gear costs more in the long run, because it costs more to maintain.
"We're cutting the cost of maintenance as carriers drive us to push down costs. The only way to keep pace with those demands is to find other ways of reducing cost. Open source is the best way."
Open source, you see, doesn't just work for upstarts anymore.