Open source gains business credibility
Summary
Topics
Nic Bellenberg, IT director for publisher Hachette Filipacchi UK, said as his company does more with the web then open source tools running on Linux are an "incredibly logical choice".
He said: "There's no point spending gazillions on a complex proprietary content management system to run a website that may have to be completely changed in only a year of two after go-live."
He added: "There are some good back-office tools available too that integrate well in the corporate infrastructure. You can get jobs done easily and without committing a lot of cash to systems that may only be experimental. Also Open Office and Neo Office are well worth looking at as alternatives to Microsoft Office."Investment bank Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International uses open source in a small part of the organization.
The bank's director of technology, Graham Yellowley, said: "The principal applications are vendor supplied packages connected by industry standard messageware for which professional support and maintenance cover is required. Otherwise Open Source software is likely to increase within the firm."
Nic Evans, European IT director for Key Equipment Finance, said his company uses Linux operating systems for critical applications and for some intranet applications such as wikis.
Electronic payment body Vocalink is primarily a Java shop for in-house applications and IT director Nick Masterson-Jones said the organization makes selective use of open source code.
He said: "We make use of technologies such as Spring, Hibernate and Fabric 3 where we can see that the code is of a high quality and can make a real impact in reducing the cost of building software."
But some organizations still favor the proprietary Microsoft route because of the support costs associated with enterprise open source.
Peter Birley, IT director at law firm Browne Jacobson, said: "We need reliable supported software and therefore stick to the Microsoft platform. There are more people and products available with those skills and we don't have to worry about the underlying technology. Open source may be cheaper per product but it would be more expensive to support.
Today's CIO Jury was…
Bill Ashworth, IT director, Countrywide Surveyors
Mark Beattie, head of IT, LondonWaste
Nic Bellenberg, IT director, Hachette Filipacchi UK
Peter Birley, IT director, Browne Jacobson
Chris Clements, IS director, RM
Nic Evans, European IT director, Key Equipment Finance
Ric Francis, executive director of operations, The Post Office
Paul Haley, IT director, University of Aberdeen
Jane Kimberlin, IT director, Domino's Pizza Group
Nick Masterson-Jones, IT director, Vocalink
John Shepherd, head of IS, Gloucestershire Constabulary
Graham Yellowley, director of technology, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities International
Talkback Most Recent of 18 Talkback(s)
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voska128th Feb 2008 -
Microsoft is losing ground!!
Ballmer was heard saying "I'm going to kill open source!!"
iwillnotbestopped@...28th Feb 2008 -
Take exception to one thing...
"There are more people and products available with those skills and we don't have to worry about the underlying technology. Open source may be cheaper per product but it would be more expensive to support."
That is simply not true - there are *not* more Microsoft technicians than technicians who can capably admin Linux boxes, for example...given the vast number of Unix admins who can (and have) readily jump onto what is just "yet another *nix". Furthermore, the best open source frameworks, such as Hibernate and Spring, are very well supported...and Apache in general has a huge following. Users of components from any of the more popular OSS sources are likely to find quicker turnaround times for resolving of issue and bug fixes, not to mention getting ready answers on online forums in short order. My apologies to Mr. Birley, but you are sadly mistaken sir, regarding supportability and availability of skills.
techboy_z28th Feb 2008 -
Well...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the guy you have issues with with a law firm? Correct me if I'm wrong, but they seem hardly more likely to need anything other than what Office/Exchange can give them in a somewhat turnkey manner.
Not that there's not better solutions out there, but for them I'd guess Microsoft tech "just works." That and lawyers are stereotypically incredibly conservative and probably need to be drawn to a new/better/different solution with the application of lots of coaxing and/or cattle prods.
zkiwi28th Feb 2008 -
That's *LARGE* law firm
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the guy you have issues with with a law firm? Correct me if I'm wrong, but they seem hardly more likely to need anything other than what Office/Exchange can give them in a somewhat turnkey manner.
A big law firm is a big operation, period. It's likely spread out over offices in several states, it does some pretty arcane accounting, it probably has some fairly heavy content management, almost certainly has its own WWW site, it must have a solidly secure mail system, and at least some are using secure IM so that attorneys in the field (even in court) can get real-time support from the home office.
Law, lately, is becoming quite IT dependent.
Then there's the outsourcing to lawyers in India ...
Yagotta B. Kidding28th Feb 2008 -
Law firms are about paper, not products
I would imagine the amount of documents flowing through a law firm most likely exceedes, on a large scale, that which many companies deal with.
The firm my cousin works at is very large (offices in 4 states), their serves and desktops are accessed constantly.
GuidingLight28th Feb 2008 -
Hmmm....
I think what passed for my point flew by the two of you. My argument was...
A law office (no matter the size) probably doesn't need much more than the Office/Exchange combo. It doesn't particularly matter how busy and how many documents they are producing or working with, I was just focusing on a match with (what I thought) their needs were in terms of applications, not what hides in the back end in terms of hardware or backend stuff. That and that I find lawyers to be incredibly resistant to change in how they do things. So, put those two together and I'm entirely unsurprised that a law firm wouldn't be thinking of changing away from Microsoft to OSS.zkiwi29th Feb 2008 -
Sorry, I'll believe the CIO over you
But then if you are saying that the CIO can be wrong, then could not the ones who like Open Source be wrong, also?GuidingLight28th Feb 2008 -
CIO's are basically just figureheads
they are probably the most worthless person in an IT shop. They play politics and kiss the rear ends of execs so people like most of us can just do what we do well, get the actual work done. No matter what a CIO says you have to take it with a grain of salt, most have been out of the game for so long they couldn't manage a network if their life depended on it.
Monkey_MCSE29th Feb 2008 -
That may or may not be
But either way, they're the ones who sign the paycheck.
Palmetto29th Feb 2008 -
no, CIO's don't sign paychecks
You're thinking of accounting and the CFO arena. CIO's are the figureheads as I stated. They are the ones who can play the politics and thats about it. They depend on the IT managers on down to actually make the decisions and to do the work. CIO's are probably the most worthless bunch of any corporation. They get paychecks for doing pretty much nothing other than listening to the folks on the front lines.Monkey_MCSE29th Feb 2008 -
Better not to mention.
"...not to mention getting ready answers on online forums in short order."
Yeah, 'cause if I mention to my CIO that my support system is an on-line forum, I'll be out of a job. You and I clearly have different definitions of "short order". My boss is going to want a support system with defined call back times measured in minutes, with an interactive body at the other end, and whose job is to take care of my problems through resolution and not just until he decides he wants to do something else.Palmetto29th Feb 2008 -
...
Where is NAG?
Linux User 14756028th Feb 2008 -
sssh, don't call his name!
Third call invokes a troll.
What? You were expecting Michael Keaton with a bad hairdo and a black and white striped suit?
Mitch 7429th Feb 2008 -
I know state and local governments are spending big money on Microsoft...
How come law firms be the cheapskates?
As for "Open source may be cheaper per product but it would be more expensive to support", support is inevitable -- no matter how far Microsoft can try to dumb down things and then blame people for being dumb...
HypnoToad7228th Feb 2008
Talkback - Tell Us What You Think
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