Page III: Open-source software is starting to expand into the big-ticket infrastructure-software market dominated by Microsoft and others.
Although open-source middleware still accounts for only a fraction of the total market, overall use of open-source applications and of Linux continues to grow. More than 80 percent of big companies surveyed say they have at least some Linux deployed within their organisations, according to market researcher Gartner.
And there's a well-established pattern for open-source adoption. Take Linux for example: First used on commodity hardware servers in the 1990s for simple tasks such as Web or file servers, Linux is now mainstream and provide a low-cost alternative to Unix or Windows for everything from departmental servers to high-end computing and desktop software.
Open-source Java application servers, databases and development tools are also rapidly making their mark. JBoss, which sells support for its namesake application server, and open-source database company MySQL have gained in popularity over just the past year.
The one issue holding back wider acceptance of both Linux and open-source applications is just how much risk big companies are willing to accept, according to a Gartner report issued last month. That risk includes support for a hodgepodge of applications from a variety of sources. That support is what Gluecode and others are looking to provide.
The question is the level of integration across the stack, up and down.
--Martin Taylor, general manager of platform strategy, Microsoft
Alfred Chuang, CEO of BEA, said earlier this month that open-source Java application servers, notably JBoss, are not taking business away from his company at this point. "We don't see anything in deployments in enterprises at all. It's not in any way or shape a threat to us," he said.
Martin Taylor, Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy, agreed that once a number of open-source middleware components are assembled, "it starts to look like our stuff." But, he said that most customers do not want to spend the time and effort to integrate low-level software. He noted that companies also need to consider whether packaged applications are certified to run on open-source software.
"It's not a matter of whether something does or doesn't exist in open source," Taylor said. "The question is the level of integration across the stack, up and down, and the amount of work to tune and build on top."
But software that's good enough is finding a home within businesses. And there's likely room for both proprietary and open-source approaches within the same company. Henry Peyret, an analyst at Forrester Research, said that open-source middleware projects typically focus on the low end of the market, rather than pursue the most advanced features, as commercial companies do. As such, open-source products do not always compete directly with established products, he said.
"Some customers recognise that they prefer some good-enough products, even if it does not have all the features," Peyret said. "If they want to have these specific features, they prefer to put in commercial products for that niche, not the overall enterprise."
Going with open-source middleware products does require willingness to accept risk and some in-house technical skills, Manes noted. Open-source projects could conceivably fizzle out, and the reliability of commercial support is not always clear.
"There is a cultural issue as to whether a given company is willing to invest the amount of effort in support and take the risk of using this open-source technology versus going with IBM," she said.
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