Open Source for the Enterprise

Open source software is changing the world of Information Technology. But making it work for your company is far more complicated than simply installing a copy of Linux. If you are serious about using open source to cut costs, accelerate development, and reduce vendor lock-in, you must institutionalize skills and create new ways of working. You must understand how open source is different from commercial software and what responsibilities and risks it brings. Open Source for the Enterprise is a sober guide to putting open source to work in the modern IT department.

Open source software is software whose code is freely available to anyone who wants to change and redistribute it. New commercial support services, smaller licensing fees, increased collaboration, and a friendlier platform to sell products and services are just a few of the reasons open source is so attractive to IT departments. Some of the open source projects that are in current, widespread use in businesses large and small include Linux, FreeBSD, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, JBOSS, and Perl. These have been used to such great effect by Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, and major commercial and financial firms, that a wave of publicity has resulted in recent years, bordering on hype. Large vendors such as IBM, Novell, and Hewlett Packard have made open source a lynchpin of their offerings. Open source has entered a new area where it is being used as a marketing device, a collaborative software development methodology, and a business model.

This book provides something far more valuable than either the cheerleading or the fear-mongering one hears about open source. The authors are Dan Woods, former CTO of TheStreet.com and a consultant and author of several books about IT, and Gautam Guliani, Director of Software Architecture at Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions. Each has used open source software for some 15 years at IT departments large and small. They have collected the wisdom of a host of experts from IT departments, open source communities, and software companies.

About the Authors

Dan Woods

Dan Woods has a background in technology and journalism and now runs the Evolved Media Network, a firm focused on technology communications. He was CTO of TheStreet.com, and CapitalThinking, led development at Time Inc. Pathfinder, and created applications for NandO.net, one of the first newspaper Web sites. Dan has an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. He covered banking for three years at The Record of Hackensack, was database editor for three years at the Raleigh News & Observer, and has written six books on technology topics, in addition to numerous white papers and magazine articles. He thanks his wife, Daniele Gerard, and his children, Fiona and Eamon, for their indulgence and support during this project.

Gautam Guliani

Gautam Guliani is the Director of Software Architecture at Kaplan Test Prep & Admissions.

About the Book

Publication Date: July 2005
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Pages: 217
ISBN: 0596101198