Dr. Dobb's | Alliance Will Push Enterprise Adoption Of Open-Source Code

Alliance Will Push Enterprise Adoption Of Open-Source Code

The alliance hopes to reduce the number of skills needed to bring open-source code inside the enterprise and make it easier to deploy.

February 15, 2007
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/open-source/alliance-will-push-enterprise-adoption-o/197006453

A group of 10 companies yesterday formed the Open Solutions Alliance to improve the ability of separate pieces of open-source code to form a combined system. The group said it would seek to reduce barriers to open-source code adoption and guarantee the interoperability of a diverse set of open-source products.

SpikeSource, an integrator of an open-source stack, and SourceForge.net, a host to numerous open-source projects, were among the organizers.

Stuart Cohen, former CEO of Open Source Development Labs, which merged with the Free Standards Group, is one of the alliance's early backers. "End users want to be able to mix and match different open-source code projects in a more seamless fashion," he said in a statement prepared for the group's launch. Cohen hasn't yet announced a new organizational affiliation.

"We've seen open-source code take the enterprise world by storm. Yet enterprises don't use separate applications in isolation -- they expect their applications to work together," said Brian Behlendorf, CTO of CollabNet, a member of the alliance, also in a statement announcing the group's launch. He said the building blocks to get open-source products to work together already exist but haven't necessarily been configured to work together or mapped out for the general public.

The OSA will work with systems integrators and open-source software vendors to improve the appeal of open-source code. EnterpriseDB, whose product is the commercially supported version of the open-source database PostgreSQL, is an enlistee in the group. So is Hyperic, an open-source systems management software supplier, and JasperSoft, a provider of open-source business intelligence.

The other members are Adaptive Planning, Centric CRM, Openbravo, and Talend.

The alliance "is writing the next chapter" in the adoption of open-source code, reducing the number of skills needed to bring it inside the enterprise and making it easier to deploy, says Andy Astor, CEO of EnterpriseDB. The group's members believe ensuring interoperability is needed to allow open-source code to reach its next stage of maturity.

The efforts of the alliance will help make it easier for enterprise adopters to know which of many projects will fit into their existing infrastructure, spokesmen for the group added.

The consortium will remain non-profit and vendor neutral, spokesmen said.