'OS software improves productivity'

THE NEXT BIG THING/ Security, robustness are topmost advantages of OSS

With Microsoft's platforms at present holding a near monopoly in computers, Gartner studies show that the trend is likely to shift to more using open source software (OSS).

OSS is a software system for which the source code is publicly available, Inherent in the open source philosophy is the freedom of a distributed community of programmers to modify and improve the code. The most widely known example of open source software is the Linux operating system.

In an interview with Business Standard, Arjun Mukherjee, chief software architect of Virtusa (India) Private Limited, speaks on the benefits of OSS and how Virtusa has benefited from adopting the open source route. He also dwells on the future plans of Virtusa to push OSS in the market.

What are the benefits of using open source software (OSS) in productisation of mission-critical applications?

Productisation has become popular with clients because it helps them create and consolidate technology assets into organisation-specific platforms (OSPs).

OSPs are attractive business because they can be deployed and leveraged across different silos of an organisation to significantly accelerate the delivery of future applications. Productisation saves a lot of grief in the long term because it trades off mind-numbing technical variety and chaos in favour of selective judicious choices and order.

In short, productisation paves the way for increased business agility on one hand, and fewer technology and software development redundancies on the other. Open source software is increasingly becoming a viable option for speeding up productisation.

Open source components and frameworks from open source foundations like Apache, Codehause, Open Symphony, ObjectWeb and Tigris are all well-designed, robust and of high-quality. Above all, they are free. By embedding them inside OSPs, one can enable greater innovation, velocity and rapid deployment of complex software applications.

What are the savings to enterprises with the use of open source?

One major advantage is the total cost of ownership. This means reduction in licensing costs, more manageability, and reduction in costs due to no disruption of business.

Security and robustness are the topmost advantages of open source over Windows, leading to uninterrupted business.

What are the other advantages of using open source platform?

Apart from being free, open source softwares are often of very high quality, well-designed, well-tested and easy to embed in other large systems.

In business terms, open source if used properly, can improve speed, quality and productivity. Since open source software is a collaborative effort and is tested several times before delivery to the end-user, it is more mature, robust and of high quality.

Could you comment on the inter-operability of software built on open source software?

Open source platforms are usually standardised technologies and promise inter-operability with a wide variety of products.

How can a services company like Virtusa promote open source?

By evangelising it and by supporting open source software for our benefit and the benefit to our customers.

Virtusa has been leveraging open source software to help its customers in the ISV (independent software vendor) as well as the enterprise world optimise their development as well as the long-term operating costs of running enterprise software.

In a study done across five customer projects at Virtusa, the teams were able to pass on the cost savings of over 25,000 man hours of effort by using open source.

How many clients has Virtusa convinced about the benefits of open source?

We have about four enterprise clients who are convinced about the benefits of open source.

What are the steps taken by Virtusa to change from the Microsoft platform to OSS?

The company has started to configure management onto OSS, and this would be completed by the end of this calendar year. We are also in the process of shifting our desktops onto Linux.

What are the hindrances faced in promoting Linux desktops?

The main hindrance to promote Linux desktops is the issue about compatible software required for gaming, which is not true.

That several leading gaming solutions providers including Epic and ID Software have provided Linux compatibility and support for popular games is itself an endorsement of Linux's flexibility and robustness.

Where does open source stand when compared to the Microsoft platform?

Microsoft is now explicitly putting itself as a competition to Linux. Rotor, one of Microsoft's .Net applications, is an open source. According to rough estimates, around 93 per cent of the computers across the globe use Microsoft platforms, around three to five per cent use Mac.

By the end of this year, around 3 per cent of the computers would shift to Linux, and according to Gartner, by the end of 2007 there would be many more who would be using OSS.