With the technology ecosystem increasingly being defined by austerity (often flying in the face of the underlying IT efficiency and productivity agenda), Open Source and cloud computing would appear to be natural bedfellows. But is the "Open cloud" a marriage of minds or an unholy alliance?
The double act is a tricky thing to master. It demands years of honing and fine-tuning. Fantastic material. Flawless timing. Perfect chemistry. Seamless, totally natural interplay. Communication must be wordless, instinctive.
This is why for every Morecambe and Wise there's always a Cannon and Ball. Why for every Pete and Dud there is a Little and Large. Why for every Spongebob and Patrick there is a Blair and Brown.
So tough can it be to pull off a truly great partnership in fact, that if you're not careful you can end up looking like total comedians. Like Blair and Brown.
On paper, cloud computing and Open Source – a likely and dynamic duo according to some – look to be a pretty good prospect however.
Certainly they tick most of aforementioned the boxes. Both have a good few years of fine-tuning behind them. Both are working with some pretty decent raw material these days. Communication and interplay shouldn't be a problem either. And with just about every IT organisation seemingly looking to slim down their financial and logistical overheads, their timing couldn't be better.
At least one question mark remains however. Chemistry. For one thing, which of them would be willing to play reluctant straight man to the other's raw talent? Accordingly, to mix a heady metaphor, while the outlook looks to be cloudy with a chance of Open Source, it's not yet clear when, where, how, or even if we'll see any real precipitation.
Some, like Glen Bremner Stokes, MD at Open Source management consultancy Open Business Associates (OBA), see the two as in many ways the perfect couple, and as such suggest that it is only a matter of time before they begin to gel.
"The coming together of Open Source and the cloud looks like a marriage made in heaven", he comments. "They have much in common. "Both are capable of delivering solutions fast; both can be highly cost effective; and, outwardly, both give users access to huge resources. The two have also had similar criticisms levelled against them; surrounding security and support and so on. Both have detailed responses to these concerns. Most agree though that the benefits outweigh the potential downsides."
Chris Harding, Director at The Open Group thinks similarly, noting that Open Source has a "natural affinity with cloud"; the cloud representing, for instance, a natural forum for Open Source development. "The cloud is a natural application area for Open Source projects", he says. "And many cloud standards developers are in sympathy with the Open Source approach."
Some commentators such as David Ebsworth, COO of Oncore IT, appear less keen on the prospective "engagement" however – cautioning that while Open Source and cloud computing might, outwardly, appear to make for a natural partnership, the similarity is really only a superficial one.
"At a glance they do appear to be natural bedfellows, but the only real similarities are the apparent cost savings", he argues. "The major concern for businesses is what risks come with tying these technologies together. Cloud computing is associated with reliability and stability – secure data backup for example – while Open Source suggests a solution lacking in support, central control, and product direction.
Cloud services are generally shared or syndicated for the simple reduction of expenditure. Open Source, in its nature, offers similar cost savings, but the marriage of the two technologies needs to be based on more than just economics." He continues: "Providers are already burdened with a sense of over expectation when businesses consider the cost effectiveness of the cloud. I think tying Open Source together with cloud computing and business critical services will further complicate an already confused market."
Others, including Clive Longbottom, Service Director with analyst Quocirca, steer more of a middle course however. "In many cases", he says, "Open Source and cloud does make sense. If you're a service provider with a wealth of skilled resources available to you, then an Open Source stack should provide a highly flexible and cost effective platform. However, if you're a commercial organisation where the skills base is predominantly Windows or other commercial systems based, moving over to Open Source will not be easy. It will also possibly end up costing a lot more when retraining and bringing in new skills and resources are taking in to account." "It also depends on what you're doing: if the requirement is to carry a service like Exchange or Sharepoint, then an Open Source platform is no use, and even running something like SAP becomes problematic. If all you want is file sharing, or something that can carry out the same functions as a commercial system (e.g. Alfresco rather than Sharepoint plus a document management system) then Open Source could be the way forwards."
"It's horses for courses. If you go for Open Source primarily for cost reasons, you'll be disappointed, as the lifetime costs are generally little different to commercial software. If you want to do it for functional reasons, that's fine – just make sure the software you choose is likely to be supportable for the foreseeable future. Not all Open Source software has a valid business model behind it, or more than one or two developers."
Harding concedes that in this sense, while a chief benefit of Open Source is that it reduces cost, it can in some respects increase risk. There is, after all, no guarantee that the software will work properly, and no way of making the developers correct any faults – other than joining the development team yourself. He insists, however, that Open Source will play an important part as time goes on, as the cloud develops and becomes ever more ubiquitous, and as more and more businesses adopt cloud computing models.
"The cloud will expand massively as the growing speed and power of the Internet makes it easy for enterprises to outsource their IT. And established Internet, Web, and software platform standards form a ready-made initial basis of standards for this expansion", he explains. "But configuration and management standards, and contextual standards for models and practices, are lacking, and are needed for cloud computing to reach its full potential.
"Open Source can play an important role in the development of these standards, and in establishing their use. There is great potential value to enterprises in the combination of a stable, accepted standard and a well-developed Open Source implementation, providing a low-cost, low-risk solution. Let's hope that cloud software and standards developers get together to create a winning combination!"
Ebsworth also concedes certain hypothetical situations in which the two technologies might fit together – shared cloud platforms with Open Source web servers sitting alongside remote desktop operating systems perhaps. He maintains though, that for business critical applications there is a definite gulf between this and choosing a responsible infrastructure that isn't just about cutting costs.
Like Harding, he thinks standards, or the lack of, could be a key factor.
"While the benefits of both technologies can be seen individually, there are still few standards for either. There's currently no agreed definition of what cloud computing even is. Everyone expects the captivating term "cloud" to mean resilient services that are backed up, dual fed power, replicated to multiple sites and are always available. The truth can be a different matter and we can see a similar parallel with Open Source. Businesses expect SLAs to reliably support the running of code, but in reality guarantees can often fall short with Open Source."
For his part, Bremner Stokes upholds the view that Open Source will be an integral part of the cloud's evolution, with technologies such as the free Apache web server offering a fast, inexpensive way to develop cloud resources. But he too admits that, looking further ahead, "…it's hard to see the marriage lasting when it's based on such fundamentally different approaches (cultural, as well as technical)."
"The cloud will become pervasive. But whilst most will use it, the control and financial benefits it generates will rest with a few major players – Google and Facebook are almost certainly going to be there (for example). This approach is completely at odds with the Open Source community's ethos of inclusion, sharing and mutual benefit."
This being the case, says Ebsworth, by far the best advice is to proceed with caution and consider all the factors before jumping in. Similarly, businesses should check out their potential cloud and Open Source providers and perform proper due diligence to ensure that both actually do what they say they do.
In summary, whether or not the cloud and Open Source will come together to form the greatest duo since Eric and Ernie remains to be seen. Their respective destinies seem highly likely to be intertwined to at least some degree however. And the resulting punchline could yet be a hefty one.
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