Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Gartner: Cloud Computing to Eclipse Open Source
The State of Open Source, 2008 published by Gartner, Inc. notes that Open Source software is quietly taking over in "stealth applications" such as embedded devices which aren't as obvious as running Linux on a server or laptop. Gartner goes on to predict that Open Source software will dominate Cloud Computing infrastructure by 2011, and Software as a Service (SaaS) will eclipse Open Source as a way for businesses to cut IT costs by 2012. Reading between the lines, Mark Taylor from the Open Source Consortium points out that SaaS will actually be Cloud Computing apps based on Open Source software.
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SaaS has been the #1 way to explain "how can you make a living doing open source" since I started researching this in 2002. Here are some ways you see this in the literature:
1) Open source developers make money from serving as consultants to people who use the software. (The "Web Collective" can be hired as consultants for working on Plone sites.)
2) Open source software can be sold in bundles that have service agreements attached to them. ("Red Hat" is Fedora + a service agreement.)
Open Source and SaaS have been part of the same business model for some time already.
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