The popularity of open source among small businesses has
been vastly exaggerated, Simon Moores believes.
Oracle and Sun have announced a partnership that will
see Oracle's software running on lower-cost Sun hardware and which
has been certified on both Sun's Solaris and supports Linux too,
giving Sun customers a choice of platforms, UltraSparc or x86
processors.
One feature in particular is a Microsoft-Exchange-like e-mail
server features, which can be accessed by Microsoft's Outlook
client.
This has led some commentators to suggest that small businesses
will dump the Exchange Server and migrate towards this Sun/Oracle
partnership instead.
My experience tells me that businesses just want messaging
without most of the extra collaborative bells and whistles, which
incur extra and expensive development work. Businesses are
conservative and they buy into things called standards because they
are safe, not because they are more expensive.
When DTI minister Steven Timms backs open source "as future for
UK business users", I think he is jumping both the gun and the
reality gap at the same time.
UK business, like UK government, may be looking at open source
alternatives to the so-called Microsoft monopoly but it does not
mean that they are likely to use them to any significant degree in
the near term.
In my own mind, Microsoft represents the BMW of the business
software world. When you buy Microsoft software you know what you
are buying, there are no mysteries, there is a huge service
industry to support your investment and you know it's going to be
an expensive, long and possibly uneventful relationship. Should the
wheels fall off your mail server, then there is always someone
available to fix the problem and have you back on the road
again.
Alternatively, you could buy an Alfa Romeo. It looks great. It
sounds great and you've always wanted one, but it's an Alfa Romeo
and you just know what's going to happen one day and the result
will be very expensive.
Companies like standards. They like "safe" and they don't mind
expensive so much if safety is included in the price tag.
No amount of cheap horse power will convince small to
medium-sized businesses to jump away from Microsoft Exchange
towards a cheaper and more attractive Open Standards alternative
until society has finished with the existing business computing
paradigm completely and that's at least five years away. Until
then, Sun and Oracle may need to come up with a more tempting
package.
What do you think?
Do you think the concept of open-source adoption en masse has
been over-hyped?
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Setting the world to rights with the collected thoughts and
opinions of leading industry analystDr Simon
Mooresof Zentelligence.
Acting globally, Zentelligence (Research) advises
governments, suppliers, business and the media on the evolution,
application and delivery of leading-edge technologies and
specialises in the areas of eGovernment and information
security.
For further information on Zentelligence and its research,
presentation and analyst services visitwww.zentelligence.com