Yesterday, D.C. Denison of the Boston Globe featured Aras in the business section article Open Source Meets Cloud Era. The article gives an inside look at software companies embracing the open source business model and why it's important for running in the cloud.
There are a number of reasons that oss is more effective for the cloud than conventional proprietary systems. One of the top reasons is secure, open access to your data and processes. We are a signatory member of the Codex of PLM Openness and we talk about "being open" and "cloud ready" all the time. But aside from cost benefits, why is open really important to you? Simple. Being open means you own your data. You can access, use, customize, export, move and integrate your data as you please. Being open means you own your processes, your data models, your business rules and your system.
Ok, so what? It's about control. You own your work, your processes, your system. Not some giant secretive software company. You OWN it. Unlike legacy PLM systems hosted in the cloud, with Aras running in the cloud you're not renting use of the system, it's yours. And you're not locked in. You can get your data and migrate anytime. You get to do whatever you need for your business. That's powerful when you compare it to the PLM lock-in sold by the data whales of the past. And then on top of that there's the cost advantage of an oss solution as well.
D.C. caught up with Jeffrey Hammond at Forrester Research Inc. for his take:
"If you have an open source system in the cloud and it needs to grow, you just add another server,' said Jeffrey... 'You don't have to worry about adding another license, because it's free. That's very appealing.' He said open source software has become 'absolutely mainstream'and that Forrester's survey of software developers indicated 80 percent use of it [open source software] in some form."
Couldn't have said it better if I tried.
Of course the article also featured other open source companies like Red Hat and Acquia Inc.. Both have seen great success with the open model and both are continuing to grow rapidly. Open source is the platform of the future for the cloud and it's clearly a major player in the software industry today.
I'm a huge proponent of oss and would love to hear your story. How do you use Aras or other open source? Let me know [email protected] or in the comments.