Open Source Adoption in the Public Sector (Part 2)
In my last blog, I talked about how U.S. government agencies as well as State and Local agencies are adopting open source software into their enterprise architectures. It is gaining momentum and in my opinion will continue to do so. One key reason is due to the development model which drives it. Innovation is encouraged in order to solve IT issues and fix bugs which are inherent in all software code that is written. A strength of the open source model is the sheer number of developers involved in the process. Communities of developers collaborate, not just as part of a corporate entity striving to make money, but on a worldwide level. Literally millions of people contribute to the open source software. This provides input from the frontlines of IT, the ones who arguably are best suited to identify and address issues and bring new ideas to the table.
This week, I get my first opportunity to attend my first Red Hat users conference, their annual Red Hat/JBoss Summit. With their acquisition of JBoss 3 years ago, Red Hat now offers software at the datacenter level for running critical systems and applications. With the backing of the most successful open source company to data, the JBoss software development suite is poised to offer customers innovation, choice, and cost savings at a level that will compete with even the largest proprietary vendors in the market. And remember what I said about government agencies adopting open source into their enterprise architectures? Over 10% of the attendees will come from this market. They see the value and recognize this is a valid alternative to the way they have always done their job. I am excited to see the sessions this week and look forward to hearing from some of the key contributors to open source software. I look forward to seeing you there as well.
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