It's all out in the open now

Open source and its benefits over proprietary software has always been a subject of dispute among user groups, as well as within the IT vendor community. Lack of awareness about the benefits of open source, lack of training, and faster adoption of proprietary software has been some of the key reasons why open source has been surrounded by speculations. But the situation is fast changing with 2009 being a big year for the penguin-open source was embraced with even higher intensity as proprietary software providers wholeheartedly supported the open source model.

“The fact that open source software provides better 'freedom from viruses' is a big pull factor” Rahul De, professor IIM Bangalore

After the controversial Novell-Microsoft deal in 2006, Red Hat too signed a major interoperability deal with Microsoft, launching an integrated product offering in the virtualization space. What's more, in a move that surprised the entire open source community, Microsoft contributed 20,000 lines of source code to the Linux Kernel.

In the wake of these major developments in the world of free and open source software (FOSS), a team from IIM Bangalore, led by Professor Rahul De, conducted an intensive study on the benefits of open source implementations across the country, laying all speculations to rest. The revelations of the report titled 'Economic Impact of Free and Open Source software-A Study in India' has been compiled in the form of 20 case studies of Indian organizations drawn from government departments, commercial firms, and educational institutions. The findings of the report suggest that the FOSS engine is now well-fuelled to propel the software economy of India.

Fussing on FOSS
According to Professor De, today the government, PSUs, education sector, and SMEs are the biggest adopters of FOSS. He observed that the government has showcased a huge interest in open source with some states such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala, and Delhi adopting FOSS as part of the state government's IT infrastructure, e-governance initiatives and also the education system.

But there is still a lack of awareness among majority of the states that needs to be eliminated through user training and allowing experimentation with FOSS. He also points out that the government should make policy recommendations mandating that RFPs include FOSS. “Within the government sector, the commodity applications on desktops can be replaced with FOSS. Also the fact that open source software provides better 'freedom from viruses' is a big pull factor,” opined Professor De. Within the PSU space, the IIM team observed a massive rollout on desktops.

The study also points out that PSUs have better control over pirated software by migrating to open source. As for the education sector, the innovation and the ability to experiment, derived from FOSS, is very important for students. Also, the freedom from lock-in and the freedom to make their own technology choices is critical for educational institutes to scale up their infrastructure, design, curriculum etc.

FOSS holds a lot of promise for SMEs too. While cost is a major driver in the adoption of FOSS, the ability to innovate is also an intangible benefit that they derive. The study revealed that SMEs have a faster learning curve to open office tools. Moreover, as open source vendors are providing a high level of support to SMEs on various FOSS solutions, there is a huge prospect of FOSS adoption by this segment.

Some of the benefits realized by the organizations that were part of the study indicate the potential that open source software holds in drastically bringing down the IT costs. The 'IT @ School' project of Kerala replaced Windows software with FOSS on 50,000 desktops in schools across the state. Tangible benefits amounted to Rs 490 million. A large e-commerce firm, adopted FOSS for servers, MIS development, document management and for desktops. The savings from desktops alone came to Rs 3 million. LIC, one of the largest insurers in India with an IT infrastructure of 3,500 servers and 30,000 desktops, saved about Rs 420 million by adopting FOSS.

FOSS Payback
According to the study, the most important reason for adopting FOSS was to save costs on the acquisition of IT. This factor was evident, with varying degrees of importance, in 18 of the 20 organizations studied. “The economic impact of FOSS was measured by three principal means-FOSS as a substitute for more expensive desktop operating systems and office productivity applications; FOSS as a substitute for more expensive server software; and FOSS enabled cost savings from complementary products such as anti-virus software required on Windows desktops,” said Professor De.

Other reasons for adopting FOSS include improved performance, security, stability, etc. Some organizations running FOSS on core servers mentioned the mission critical nature of applications for which they chose to migrate to FOSS. On the other hand, many organizations selected FOSS for scaling up their operations when needed. This is facilitated by the non-complex licensing and distribution aspects of FOSS. Open source software has also attracted some organizations owing to their security features. Many companies have mentioned this as a major support to administration also. This is particularly attractive to those adopting FOSS for desktop use.

Most companies also mentioned the freedom from vendor lock-in, and the freedom to make technology choices, and thus be more democratic in the way an IT infrastructure is built, as a major benefit of adopting open source software. While cost remains the most important reason, other factors came on top of the priority list for different types of organizations. Apart from this, there are other intangible benefits of adopting FOSS.

The ability to innovate, tinker with, change and create new software remains one of the most powerful benefits of FOSS. These translate to direct economic benefits to organizations, however, the benefits are strategic in nature (and not easy to quantify). It is estimated that the value of one Linux distribution is about $10.8 billion. This is based on the development cost of distribution that contains 200 million lines of software code. This immense cost is reflective of the value that the ability to innovate creates.

For the 'IT @ School' case, FOSS enables creation of software for teaching various science subjects and also for creating local language fonts. The free access to source code and the ability to experiment with different platforms is important for the education sector. Many schools in Kerala-almost 6,000 desktops across 3,000 schools-have already migrated to FOSS and have already started using and building specific applications for teaching purposes. They create customized packages from existing FOSS tools for their special needs. In the IIC case, FOSS products are used to enable students to experiment with software.

As FOSS products are not vendor driven, they enable users to make choices on their own. The NIA experimented with FOSS-based emailing solutions, to understand the migration process, the costs and cost-savings involved, and the ability to scale. Success with FOSS prompted them to adopt more FOSS products. IF Systems, an IT testing start-up based in Bengaluru, use FOSS-based tools to bid for testing contracts as they can be acquired easily and skills can be built up reasonably quickly.

The Road Ahead
Though the IIM study does not predict the size of the FOSS market, Gartner believes that by 2010 it will account for 20 percent of the global software market, displacing over $100 billion in revenues from traditional software vendors. With Indian enterprises, government and even PSUs having adopted Linux and OSS in a big way, the next wave of growth is slated to come from the SOHO and desktop users. Open source software vendors are already partnering with OEMs on pre-installed Linux OS to tap this segment. Also, localization efforts by open source vendors, where it has been offering its products in multiple Indian languages will further drive up the uptake of FOSS.

Priya Kekre
(Source: DQ)