Open Source for the Enterprise

Open Source for the Enterprise

by Dan Woods, Gautam Guliani
Released July 2005
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596101190

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Book description

Open source software is changing the world of InformationTechnology. But making it work for your company is far morecomplicated than simply installing a copy of Linux. If you areserious about using open source to cut costs, acceleratedevelopment, and reduce vendor lock-in, you must institutionalizeskills and create new ways of working. You must understand how opensource is different from commercial software and whatresponsibilities and risks it brings. Open Source for theEnterprise is a sober guide to putting open source to work inthe modern IT department.

Open source software is software whose code is freely availableto anyone who wants to change and redistribute it. New commercialsupport services, smaller licensing fees, increased collaboration,and a friendlier platform to sell products and services are just afew of the reasons open source is so attractive to IT departments.Some of the open source projects that are in current, widespreaduse in businesses large and small include Linux, FreeBSD, Apache,MySQL, PostgreSQL, JBOSS, and Perl. These have been used to suchgreat effect by Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, and major commercial andfinancial firms, that a wave of publicity has resulted in recentyears, bordering on hype. Large vendors such as IBM, Novell, andHewlett Packard have made open source a lynchpin of theirofferings. Open source has entered a new area where it is beingused as a marketing device, a collaborative software developmentmethodology, and a business model.

This book provides something far more valuable than either thecheerleading or the fear-mongering one hears about open source. Theauthors are Dan Woods, former CTO of TheStreet.com and a consultantand author of several books about IT, and Gautam Guliani, Directorof Software Architecture at Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions. Eachhas used open source software for some 15 years at IT departmentslarge and small. They have collected the wisdom of a host ofexperts from IT departments, open source communities, and softwarecompanies.

Open Source for the Enterprise provides a top to bottomview not only of the technology, but of the skills required tomanage it and the organizational issues that must be addressed.Here are the sorts of questions answered in the book:

  • Why is there a "productization gap" in most open sourceprojects?

  • How can the maturity of open source be evaluated?

  • How can the ROI of open source be calculated?

  • What skills are needed to use open source?

  • What sorts of open source projects are appropriate for ITdepartments at the beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expertlevels?

  • What questions need to be answered by an open sourcestrategy?

  • What policies for governance can be instituted to control theadoption of open source?

  • What new commercial services can help manage the risks of opensource?

  • Do differences in open source licenses matter?

  • How will using open source transform an IT department?

    • Praise for Open Source for the Enterprise: "Open Sourcehas become a strategic business issue; decisions on how and whereto choose to use Open Source now have a major impact on the overalldirection of IT abilities to support the business both withcapabilities and by controlling costs. This is a new game and onegenerally not covered in existing books on Open Source whichcontinue to assume that the readers are 'deep dive' technologists,Open Source for the Enterprise provides everyone frombusiness managers to technologists with the balanced view that hasbeen missing. Well worth the time to read, and also worthencouraging others in your enterprise to read as well." ----AndyMulholland - Global CTO Capgemini

    "Open Source for the Enterprise is required reading foranyone working with or looking to adopt open source technologies ina corporate environment. Its practical, no-BS approach will makesure you're armed with the information you need to deployapplications successfully (as well as helping you know when to say"no"). If you're trying to sell open source to management, thisbook will give you the ammunition you need. If you're a managertrying to drive down cost using open source, this book will tellyou what questions to ask your staff. In short, it's a clear,concise explanation of how to successfully leverage open sourcewithout making the big mistakes that can get you fired." ----KevinBedell - founding editor of LinuxWorld Magazine

    Table of contents

    1. Special Upgrade Offer
    2. Preface
      1. Comments and Questions
      2. Safari Enabled
      3. Acknowledgments
      4. Dedications
    3. 1. The Nature of Open Source
      1. The Open Source Debate
      2. Understanding Your Open Source Readiness
        1. Getting It Right
        2. Finding and Evaluating Open Source
      3. The Nature of Open Source
      4. What Is Open Source?
      5. Where Does Open Source Come From?
      6. How Does Open Source Grow?
      7. How Does Open Source Die?
      8. Leadership in the Open Source Life Cycle
      9. Second-Generation Trends in Open Source
      10. The Different Roots of Commercial Software
        1. The Commercial Software Life Cycle
          1. Requirements gathering and the product roadmap
          2. Productization
          3. Maintenance and support
          4. End-of-life
      11. Productization: The Key to Understanding the Challenge of Using Open Source
      12. Comparing the Risks of Commercial and Open Source Software
        1. The Sales Process
        2. Transparency
        3. Flexibility
        4. Risk of Quality
        5. Risk of Productization
        6. Risk of Failure
        7. Risk of Takeover
        8. Support
    4. 2. Measuring the Maturity of Open Source
      1. Open Source Traps
      2. The Elements of Open Source Maturity
        1. Leadership and Culture
        2. Vitality of Community
        3. Quality of End-User Support
        4. Extent and Scope of Documentation
        5. Quality of Installation Packaging
        6. Momentum (or Frequency of Releases)
        7. Quality of Code and Design
        8. Quality of Architecture
        9. Testing Practices
        10. Integration with Other Products
        11. Support for Standards
        12. Quality of Project Site
        13. License Type
        14. Potential for Commercial Conflicts
        15. Corporate Commitment
        16. Putting It All Together
      3. The Open Source Maturity Model
    5. 3. The Open Source Skill Set
      1. Preventing an Open Source Nightmare
      2. Open Source Skill Levels
        1. Skill Levels Defined
        2. Beginner
        3. Intermediate
        4. Advanced
        5. Expert
      3. Open Source Skills Inventory
        1. Open Source Development Tools
        2. Hosting
        3. System Administration and Operations
        4. Open Source Infrastructure
        5. Programming Languages
        6. Open Source Community Skills
          1. Evaluating the maturity of open source
          2. Networking with open source developers
      4. How Maturity Affects Required Skills and Resources
      5. Skills and Risks
      6. Open Source Skill Building
    6. 4. Making the ROI Case
      1. ROI Fashions
        1. What Is ROI for Open Source?
      2. How Open Source Costs Differ from Commercial Software Costs
        1. Evaluation Costs
        2. License and Maintenance Costs
        3. Installation and Configuration Costs
        4. Integration and Customization Costs
        5. Operations and Support Costs
        6. The Cost of Narrowness
      3. Making Your Own ROI Model
        1. Creating the ROI Analysis Spreadsheet
        2. Creating the Estimates
        3. Elements of Evaluation Costs
        4. Elements of Installation and Configuration Costs
        5. Elements of Integration and Customization Costs
        6. Elements of Operations and Support Costs
      4. Skills Versus Money
    7. 5. Designing an Open Source Strategy
      1. Crafting a Strategy for Open Source Adoption
        1. Steps to Low-Risk Open Source Adoption
        2. Starting from Scratch
        3. Becoming a Beginner
        4. Moving to the Intermediate Level
        5. When the Advanced and Expert Levels Make Sense
        6. Institutional Skill Building
      2. Crafting a Strategy for Applying Open Source
      3. Crafting a Strategy for Managing Open Source
        1. Unique Challenges of Controlling Open Source Adoption
        2. Different Companies, Different Responses
    8. 6. Support Models for Open Source
      1. Open Source Support Offers
        1. The Generic Commercial Software Support Offer
        2. Evaluating Open Source Support Providers
        3. What Kind of Open Source Will Be Supported?
          1. Subscriptions
          2. Certified bundles
          3. Custom enhancements
        4. Open Source-Based Products
        5. Consulting Services
      2. When Is Commercial Open Source Support the Right Choice?
        1. When Use of Open Source Is Mission Critical
        2. When a Certified Bundle Solves an Important Problem
        3. When a Consultant Creates a Custom Feature
        4. Accelerating Implementation and Building Skills
      3. Buy Carefully
    9. 7. Making Open Source Projects Easy to Adopt
      1. One Program for Productization
      2. Basic Information and Community Support
        1. Mission Statement
        2. Examples and Working Sites
        3. Question-and-Answer Archive
        4. Documentation
      3. Reducing the Skills Gap for Getting Started
        1. Installation Scripts
        2. Configuration Tools
        3. Administrative Interfaces
        4. Operational and Diagnostic Consoles
      4. Accelerating Learning
        1. Sample Code
        2. API Documentation
        3. Architecture Documentation
        4. Guide to Embedded Components
      5. Integration
        1. TWiki: An Integration Case Study
        2. Choosing an Intranet Identity
      6. Benefits of Increased Adoption
      7. Opportunities for Skill Building
    10. 8. A Comparison of Open Source Licenses
      1. Many Flavors of Licenses
      2. The Classic Licenses
        1. In the Beginning: The GPL
          1. Free, open, and Copylefted
        2. The “Lesser” GPL
        3. Using the GPL in Your Own Work
      3. The BSD Licenses: FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD
      4. The MIT License
      5. Second-Generation/Single-Project Licenses
        1. The Apache License 2.0
        2. The Artistic License (Perl)
      6. Corporate Licenses
        1. The Netscape Public License (NPL) and Mozilla Public License (MPL)
        2. The Sun Industry Standards Source License (SISSL)
        3. The Apple Public Source License (APSL)
        4. The IBM/Eclipse Public License (EPL)
        5. The Lucent Public License (Plan 9)
        6. Other Corporate Licenses
      7. Why Pick Just One? The Dual Licensing Option
    11. 9. Open Source Under Attack
      1. SCO Versus IBM and the Legal Quandary of Open Source
      2. What You Need to Know About SCO
        1. A Brief History of SCO
        2. 2003: SCO Versus IBM
        3. The Microsoft Connection
      3. What It All Means: The Implications of the SCO Crisis
        1. More FUD, Dead Ahead?
        2. Indemnification: Could Sun Be a Safe Harbor with Open Source Solaris?
        3. Patents: A Growing Concern
        4. Worst-Case Scenarios
    12. 10. Open Source Empowerment
      1. Two Poles of IT: Buy Versus Build
      2. Where to Buy, Where to Build
      3. Closing the Requirements Gap
      4. Open Source Empowerment
        1. Creating a Learning Culture
        2. Engineering Practices
        3. Building a Better Staff
        4. Increasing Choice, Reducing Vendor Lock-In
      5. The Vision and Challenge of IT
    13. A. The Open Source Platform
      1. What Is a Platform?
      2. Three Open Source Platforms
        1. Platforms for Application Development
        2. Platforms for Infrastructure
        3. Platforms for Applications
      3. Assembling Your Open Source Platform
    14. B. End-User Computing on the Desktop
      1. Solutions
        1. Linux Distribution
        2. Desktop Environment
        3. Productivity Software
        4. Desktop Database Management
        5. Web Browsers
        6. Messaging Client
      2. Capabilities
      3. Open Source Desktop Environments: KDE
      4. Desktop Productivity Suites
      5. Desktop Database Management: MySQL
      6. Web Browsing: Firefox
    15. C. Open Source and Email
      1. A Brief History of Email for Enterprise Use
      2. Opportunities for IT Use of Open Source Email Products
      3. Open Source Email Server Solutions
        1. Open Source Email Server Capabilities
        2. Open Source Email Server Projects
      4. Recommended Email Server Projects
        1. Postfix
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
        2. Qmail
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weaknesses
        3. Exim
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
        4. OpenLDAP
      5. Open Source Email Client Solutions
        1. Open Source Email Client Capabilities
        2. Open Source Email Client Projects
        3. Novell Evolution
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weaknesses
        4. Mozilla Thunderbird
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
      6. Content Scanners
        1. Antivirus Software
        2. Content Scanner Capabilities
        3. Clam AntiVirus
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
        4. ClamWin
          1. Product strength
          2. Product weakness
        5. SpamAssassin
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
        6. SpamBayes
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
      7. Mailing List Managers
        1. Mailing List Manager Solutions
        2. Mailing List Manager Capabilities
        3. Mailing List Manager Projects
        4. Mailman
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weaknesses
        5. Dada Mail
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
    16. D. Groupware, Portals, and Collaboration
      1. Groupware
        1. Intranet Solutions
          1. Project management
          2. Software development process management
          3. Document management and distribution
          4. Forums
        2. Business Application Support
          1. Forums
          2. Application/team weblog
        3. Open Source Groupware Capabilities
          1. Forums
          2. Basic features
          3. Content management and collaboration features
          4. User management features
          5. Advanced usability features
        4. Recommended Open Source Groupware Projects
          1. phpBB
          2. Product strengths
          3. mvnForum
          4. Product strengths
          5. Product weakness
      2. Portals
        1. Portal Capabilities
          1. Basic feature
          2. User management features
          3. Content management features
        2. Recommended Open Source Portal Projects
          1. Tikiwiki
          2. Product strengths
          3. Product weakness
          4. Metadot
          5. Product strengths
      3. Wikis
        1. Wiki Capabilities
          1. Basic features
          2. Content management and collaboration features
          3. User management features
          4. Advanced usability feature
        2. Recommended Open Source Wiki Projects
          1. TWiki
          2. Product strengths
          3. Product weakness
      4. Messaging Systems
        1. Messaging Capabilities
          1. Basic features
          2. Collaboration features
          3. User management features
          4. Usability features
          5. Security and privacy features
        2. Recommended Open Source Messaging Projects
          1. Gaim
          2. Product strengths
          3. Product weakness
          4. Trillian
          5. Product strengths
          6. Product weaknesses
          7. AdiumX
          8. Product strengths
          9. Product weaknesses
          10. Fire
          11. Product strengths
          12. Product weakness
          13. Jabber
          14. Product strengths
          15. Product weakness
    17. E. Web Publishing and Content Management
      1. Complete Content Management Systems
        1. Basic Online Publishing Solutions
          1. Brochureware
          2. Marketing collateral
          3. Product information
          4. Online publications
          5. Weblogs
          6. How web publishing and content management systems help create basic online publishing solutions
        2. Extranet Solutions
          1. Technical support
          2. Customer self-service
          3. Training and e-learning
          4. Business-to-business relationship support
          5. How web publishing and content management systems help create extranet solutions
        3. Intranet Solutions
          1. Knowledge management
          2. Document management
          3. Digital asset management
          4. How web publishing and content management systems help create intranet solutions
      2. Web Publishing and Content Management System Capabilities
        1. Content Creation and Persistence
        2. Workflow Management
        3. Search
        4. Site Administration
        5. Page and User Interface Design
        6. Content Delivery and Distribution
      3. Recommended Open Source Content Management System Projects
        1. Plone
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weaknesses
        2. Drupal
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weaknesses
        3. OpenCms
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
      4. Weblog Publishing Systems
        1. Geeklog
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
        2. Blosxom
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
      5. Content Management System Toolkits and Components
        1. Apache AxKit
          1. Product strengths
          2. Product weakness
    18. F. Application Development
      1. Capabilities
        1. Presentation Management Facilities
        2. Session Management Facilities
        3. Administration, Configuration, and Diagnostic Facilities
        4. External Systems Integration Support
      2. Open Source Application Servers
        1. Java Application Servers
          1. Apache Tomcat
          2. JBoss
        2. Perl Application Servers
          1. HTML::Mason
          2. Apache::AxKit
        3. PHP Application Servers
          1. PEAR
          2. Mojavi
          3. Smarty
        4. Other Application Servers
          1. OpenACS
          2. Zope
    19. Index
    20. About the Authors
    21. Colophon
    22. Special Upgrade Offer
    23. Copyright

    Product information

    • Title: Open Source for the Enterprise
    • Author(s): Dan Woods, Gautam Guliani
    • Release date: July 2005
    • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
    • ISBN: 9780596101190