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IT Leaders' Open Source Newsletter - Issue 1
| As open source accelerates into the mainstream, we at Hubstone are launching the first of our newsletters aimed at IT Leaders, Managers, Directors and CIOs. Please help us with feedback to make this an informative newsletter focused on open source solutions and strategy. Open source applications are ready to compete in the mainstream software market Right now there are real business solutions available to evaluate with more emerging at a rapid rate of development. Hubstone are actively engaged in an agressive partnership programme with key open source frontrunners which gives us a unique position in the market to deliver winning strategy and world class deployments. Equally feedback from key IT leaders like you will enable us to structure a series of newsletters that provide thought leadership and industry insight. The IT Leaders' Open Source Newsletter will keep you abreast of all the latest open source developments and give you our take on industry developments. We plan to be the number 1 open source system integrator and as such a trusted partner to businesses in the UK looking to realise benefit from open source. If we've managed to whet your appetite, then read on! For businesses that want a more focused introduction, we have a great Primer Session which can help to better position open source within the organisation. |
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In this months newsletter
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| Open source in your business environment!
In a nutshell, organisations that that are willing to grasp an understanding of open source, will have significant opportunity to reduce cost, develop competitive edge and build a more flexible IT operation. Free/Libre/Open Source software is generally understood in terms of the freedoms and fairness that it promotes. For enterprises though, it will be a question of choice, cost, control and power. Regardless of the benefits, it is imperative that buy-in to open source begins at a senior level. Essentially open source is a paradigm shift within the IT industry that can create significant opportunity. However, on the flip side it may pose challenges in terms of IT service management, transition and control. Open source is much more than free software. More than a pure technical debate, it's a platform for business innovation. Pattern of investment in open source is a key indicator There's been considerable investment in open source infrastructure (Linux, web, application and database servers) and its resulting growth in the data centre is no great surprise. The past few years have seen a large amount of investment at the application layer bringing with it various flavours of commercial open source business solutions. There are variations in business models and focus, but they essentially all give an ability to engage open source in the same way we would engage traditional proprietary products. From CRM to document management and everything in between there is now a wide selection of polished business applications based on or leveraging the open source model. We also see application stacks, servers and various other toolsets making technical projects easier for the enterprise to install. Thus we now have a new software market with open source as its foundation. What is the next step? The services business has already seen venture capital investment and is part of the logical growth of open source. Open source businesses have been quoting services as part of their offering for some time, but here we are focusing specifically around what we know as traditional consultancy services. Hubstone is one such organisation, building a big 4 approach to delivering open source business consultancy services. Leading consultancy firms have been relatively slow to move in this space and it may well be through smaller niche players that this market develops. Especially given that we have a number of mid-range consultancies growing market share across the generic IT consultancy arena. Implications? If you are not already knowingly using open source then you likely will be soon. How will you guage your risk, return and level of engagement with this movement? We believe organisations need to achieve a level of readiness for open source in strategy, policy and operational management. It's a given that many organisations out there are using open source in development projects. Are you being exposed to risks that you haven't yet had the opportunity to fully understand? Are you missing opportunities that open source could be giving your business? |
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EU FLOSS Report
Economic impact of open source software on innovation and competitiveness of the Information and Communication Technologies sector in the EU. This report was produced by UNU-MERIT having been prepared by Rishab Aiyer Ghosh. Rishab has done excellent work in FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open/Source) studies that give valuable insight into open source software and the people that produce it. For us there's a really strong message to take from this. Organisations like yours employ the majority of paid developers out there and will have a fundamental role to play in shaping FLOSS' impact. Recognising the potential beyond what's there now and the value of collaborative models is something that we believe will be fundamental for organisations that realise the most benefit from this:
Get the full report here. |
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Peugeot to move 20000 users to Suse Linux desktops
Novell have announced a deal with Peugeot to install 20000 desktops and 2500 servers. Finally, we're starting to see some real commitment to a desktop implementation. When will Linux be ready for the desktop has been a key question for some time now. Vendors moving their staff to their own product just doesn't really cut it as a reference implementation. At Hubstone, we're not wholly convinced by the notion of heterogenous desktop environments. It just smells like double spend on support. If you can't migrate them all, then why do 5% of them? There may be a compelling argument out there for some organisations depending on how they pay for desktop support. What is clear though, is that the desktop migration will be a significant undertaking for most organisations. Our perspective is that the Linux Desktop has come a long way and for the majority of our activities it works well. A key first step in a desktop migration is developing a good understanding of the different profiles of user you have. Transactional users, developers and basic office productivity users may well just send you the note that says 'it's different'. Your Microsoft power users will likely send something stronger, but if you can take the heat and demonstrate the savings then you may be the next Peugeot. Don't underestimate the amount of effort required in integration to deliver a complete desktop solution. There is no apples for apples comparison between Windows and Linux from a desktop perspective. Large corporate users already understand how the delivery of Windows business desktops is very much like building a custom distribution of an operating system. There are also clear indications that the next generation of Windows desktops may provide a degree of vendor lock-in that will be unacceptable to many organisations. Likely that the benefits Peugeot expect to realise are not just financial. |
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SugarCRM Partnership
We're now a silver partner with SugarCRM, the worlds leading commercial open source CRM solution. It's a fine product with a solid community that enables us to work at the heart of an enterprise's business. Understanding how our clients manage their customer relationships will help us to deliver more and more powerful Open Source solutions. For many enterprises CRM goes way beyond the point solutions that many software vendors provide. The beauty of something like Sugar is the ability to customise, get involved in the development process and the flexibility in deployment. For more information click here. Coupa eProcurement
Low cost eProcurement is coming and Coupa is its name. We started tracking this a short while ago and it is truly one of the most innovative applications we've seen in some time. Currently at a version 3 preview release, customers are already willing to take this on and start reaping the benefit. If it's on your radar or you would like a demo, then contact us at eprocurement@hubstone.co.uk for more information. We're working closely with the team at Coupa to establish ourselves as an implementation partner in the UK. SpikeSource Alfresco
SharePoint and Documentum are not the only options for enterprise document management. Alfresco is rapidly gaining ground as a highly functional and credible alternative to these products. We're currently working on forming a partnership with SpikeSource to deliver Alfresco document management through their SpikeIgnited platform. Why SpikeSource? This partnership will give us an opportunity to extend our product portfolio through their suite of certified applications. Alfresco is just the start.... |
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Your Feedback
..is valuable to us. If there are any topics you'd like us to focus on within these newletters or you have suggestions to improve the content then please let us know. Drop us an email at newsletters@hubstone.co.uk. If you want to subscribe to this newsletter the click here. Thanks for reading The Hubstone Team |