Going open source first

Kristian NorlingFindwise

KristianNorling

Jboye11, Aarhus, 10th of november

AbstractBusiness needs makes it necessary to customizing software, but those changes are hard to maintain when upgrading or simply because the original developer has left. Open source software prides itself by having many eyes that look at the code and many commit their time and energy enhancing OSS. Is open source a viable alternative for commercial off-the shelf software (COTS)?

Kristian will present the obstacles and opportunities that OSS presents. He will also share some practical advice, based on what they have learnt when starting to use OSS.

Agenda

• Is open source Software really free?

• What is good and bad with open source

• Is it possible to go all-in with open source?

• Open source software in Västra Götalandsregionen. What we use?

• Do’s and dont’s

Region Västra GötalandPublic sector

50.000 employees

© Region Västra Götaland

Background

• Organisational challenges

• Internal vs. external expertise

• Strategy

• Philosophy goes well with public sector values

Is Open Source Software free?• Of course not

• It saves time - no procurement

• No up-front license cost

>> Larger piece of budget for development

• Maintenance/support cost the same as for proprietary software

What is good with Open Source?• Good quality code = works better

• Lots of developers with experience

• Easier to integrate, you can change anything

• Better support!

• Eco-system with communities

• Often loads of add-ons/plugins available for easy extension of functionality

• Frequent updates

What is bad with Open Source?

• You can change anything

• Few developers with experience

• Harder to evaluate

• Frequent updates

Is it possible to go all-in with open source?• Certainly possible - but is is the right?

• It is more of a question how does it support your line of business

• It should always be considered!

• Should be included in your strategy

Open source software in VGR. What we use

Liferay (Portal)

Alfresco (ECM)

Piwik (Web Analytics)

Solr/Lucene (ES)

Heritrix (Web Archiving - emergency web)

MediaWiki

Wordpress (Blog)

Drupal (WCM)

and of course VGR uses infrastructure software like PostgreSQL, Apache web server, MySQL, Tomcat etc.

We have open sourced a lot of stuff toohttp://code.google.com/p/oppna-program/

Dos

• Do find a good systems integrator with experience from the Open Source System you have chosen.

• Do train your own staff

...and don’ts

• Do not forget business requirements

• Do not think that Open Source is free - Look at TCO

• Do not believe all the FUD spread by proprietary vendors

• Do not believe everything that evangelist like I say - make up your own mind!

Try it - maybe you will like it

kristian.norling@findwise.com

www.slideshare.net/kristiannorling

twitter.com/kristiannorling

sys64738.se

www.linkedin.com/in/kristiannorling

Thank you!