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 Open source is now making inroads into storage, with new offerings that can reduce costs by up to 90 per cent.
Storage is the last bastion of proprietary systems and has traditionally been out of reach to most truly open source communities.
In April, Sun announced new developer resources and expanded open storage services to deliver low cost infrastructure.
Open storage changes the economics of the storage market. It is more cost effective, easier to deploy, and frees organizations from vendor lock-in with a global community sharing a passion to make better storage solutions.
Armed with better solutions, businesses can quickly respond to business changing demands.
For example, open source software enables the reuse and repurposing of hardware.
With Sun's open storage, datacentre components can be mixed and matched to maximise performance.
The Two-Way Street of Open Source
Open source is a two way street — a way to enhance what's already available and to contribute to the growth of other developments.
The uptake of open source software continues to grow and Gartner has predicted that by 2012 more than 90 per cent of enterprises will use open source in direct or embedded forms. While open source has long been seen as a way to combat spiralling IT spend, many businesses now realise it's also a way to get the latest software innovations.
With the support of multinational vendors, user 'trust' in open source has also grown. Downloads for Sun's MySQL database jumped from 50,000 to 60,000 a day following the acquisition by Sun.
The question is now what type of open source is right for your organisation — enterprise or community? The source code for both enterprise and community open source is freely available to users; the differences lie in the level of support and value-added features.
Enterprise Open Source
Enterprise open source gives the technical support of a vendor along with a stable, tested version of the software with well-known, documented limitations and bugs.
If the most important aspects of a software buying decision are support and legal indemnity, then the enterprise open source version is the right one.
With enterprise versions, additional features are also generally available. For example, MySQL Enterprise Server is part of a for-pay annual MySQL Enterprise subscription. Subscribers receive quarterly service packs with the latest fixes and technical support that users of Community Server don't.
Community Open Source
Community versions are widely implemented by technical users who support it themselves and have no need for premium add-on services.
These users don’t pay for the technology. They contribute to the code, increase use through word of mouth, and support the community. The developments made in communities typically flow through to enterprise open source.
Community open source is often considered the beta version of enterprise open source due to short release cycles and constant development and input from users.
For example, OpenSolaris has a release cycle of six months, while the Solaris 10 Operating System has a release cycle of three to five years. Developments from the OpenSolaris project are then fed back into the development of Solaris.
Open Source at Sun
Enterprise open source gives the technical support of a vendor along with a stable, tested version of the software with well-known, documented limitations and bugs.
Sun is the largest corporate contributor to the open source movement with many enterprise and community versions including:
| Enterprise open source |
Community open source |
| Solaris 10 |
OpenSolaris |
| StarOffice |
OpenOffice |
| Java System Application Server |
GlassFish |
| UltraSPARC processor |
OpenSPARC |
| MySQL Enterprise Server |
MySQL Community Server |
When Sun first opened up its code, many questioned the decision. Today, the Australian open source industry generates $500 million of revenue every year, according to the Australian Open Source Industry and Community Census.
The growth in the size of the industry also means growth in the size of the open source communities. The communities drive the development of innovative software and ultimately enhance the technology available to businesses.
Learn more about Sun's open source commitment.
If you are interested in further information on anything covered in this issue of Sun Inner Circle, please contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Duncan Bennet
VP and Managing Director
Sun Microsystems Australasia Pty. Ltd.
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