Re: Annual Maintenance

Open source has its place, and I use it where appropriate. That does not
mean it’s free, it has a support cost that is actually very similar to
proprietary software, it’s just buried in the salaries and burden for
employees. When the employee is doing and open source update, testing
etc., that’s a real cost. Add to it uncertainty about the future beyond a
year or two, and you have another cost. (Which new shinny object are the
techs going to chase today…..). Now add the problem that the plethora of
CVEs that are coming out add to the equation and what is the extra cost of
the business insurance?

So, yea, I like it too, but that’s not a compelling argument by itself.
Once you add in all the variables, the proprietary options might not look
as bad as you think.

In the end do you invest in people (more of them and more education) or
software/hardware? That’s the buy/build choice CIO/CTOs need to make.
Having been in that chair before I can assure you it’s not as easy as
“Welcome to open source”.


--
Jim Oberholtzer
Agile Technology Architects