The world is adopting open source software technology faster than we are anticipating. The culture of using open source software was predominantly started by startups and SMEs who did not have large cash reserves to go for proprietary software. Initially it was considered as inferior to its proprietary counterparts and was not taken seriously by large organization as everyone was concerned with its lack of important features, security capabilities and support. Now this mind set is changing gradually across the industry domains as open source technology is maturing and ecosystem is becoming stronger and stronger each passing day. One of the chief reasons for this change in behavior is the cost, feature, security and support benefits offered by these open source software compared to proprietary software.
Indian government like large organizations has always remained skeptical about using open source technologies no matter how many benefits it offered or how cost effective it is. One of reasons was lobbying of proprietary software maker to use their software instead of open source. With government now waking upto the advantages of open source technology the proprietary software makers are scrambling to save themselves from losses and prematurely death. Large and powerful vendors like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP are finding alternate ways of doing business with the government. In couple of years as the lock-in period of proprietary software gets over more and more business and government organization will choose open source technology – for ERP, CRM, Project Management, Collaborative software etc.
Most of the large organizations are adopting open source culture or supporting open source initiatives – like recently Microsoft made its Dot Net platform and Visual studio as an open source platform, Oracle has MySQL, IBM has Eclipse etc. The mode of business would be more or less like RedHat, sell the software for free and earn money through support and training. Going forward this looks like a viable options for these companies. With government keen on open source technology more and more startups stands to get a pie of lucrative government software projects in the near future and if they are executed properly and offered great support and robust security environment it’s a win-win situation for both. In the near future there may be a hybrid software model where the open source and proprietary technology can co-exist and make better opportunity for grow and sustenance. With billions of dollars riding on open source technology it is sure that no one wants to miss this diamond opportunity.
