|
Faced with a sour economy, Asian companies are taking a fresh look at the advantages of open source software
July 2009
Share: 
Inner Circle Subscriber Center
Get the content that meets your interests and needs:
Not a member?
|
By Lionel Lim
The spillover of the global downturn has affected Asia with considerable speed and force. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects growth for Asia to decelerate to 1.3 percent in 2009 from 5.1 percent in 2008, and to return to 4.3 percent — still below potential — in 2010. Cost-cutting moves dominate headlines in the region. Businesses are focusing on making wise investments that reduce costs and better leverage technology.
Company CEOs, CIOs and CFOs are re-examining the IT assets they currently have and are looking for ways to fully take advantage of those capabilities. High performance, reliability, and scalability are still key, but more development teams are now exploring the idea of bringing in open-source solutions to meet business requirements at minimal cost.
Open source technology enables equal access and freedom to distribute a technology's source code — in essence the “language” on which it is built. It includes an accepted set of standards that give a business the freedom to run critical applications and data on products from different companies, whenever it chooses.
Open source technologies and solutions such as Java, Linux, Solaris, MySQL, Apache and OpenOffice are well established, with billions of people using them. Some of the world's most successful companies — such as Google and Facebook — run their businesses on them.
However, with the current state of the economy, many businesses in Asia are re-evaluating proprietary software solutions and considering integrating open source technologies (and consolidation technologies such as virtualisation) into the solutions supporting their business systems and processes. Developers and start-ups are also building on open source offerings because these are available without barriers and offer access to code bases with which they can improve their software designs.
The widespread adoption of open source technologies is accelerating, but in many ways we are just at the beginning of the next evolution of the Internet. The sooner more businesses, developers, and governments are persuaded about the benefits of open standards, the quicker we can turn the economic challenges to new business opportunities.
Businesses can unlock resources and create new value by using free and open source software — while realizing significant cost savings. They can make their company more flexible and agile with a simpler infrastructure that is easier to use, easier to maintain, and easier to scale.
Regards,
Lionel Lim
| 
