Open source claims seat at the corporate table in ‘08

Developments around power management, virtualization, mobile devices and data centers will drive open source, Linux in 2008

By John Fontana, Network World, 12/11/07

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After years spent on the corporate proving ground, open source and Linux are looking at a 2008 that could likely show how hard labor pays off.

There are a number of important corporate issues -- power management, virtualization, mobile devices and data centers -- where open source is not crashing the party but actually has an invitation.

Of course, invites don’t mean you get to kiss the host. Open source and Linux still need to consistently hold their own when compared with commercial software.

In fact, many believe users’ uncertainty about open source will shrink so much that their questions around it will evaporate in 2008.

“For me, the big story of open source in the enterprise is that it’s becoming a non-story,” says Barry Crist, the CEO of Centeris, which makes software to integrate user authentication services between Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac. “There was so much hand wringing, but what I am seeing at the corporate level is this has become uninteresting to them. They are comfortable with the mix between commercial and open source. Organizations are working to figure out how to best leverage and integrate these platforms with their Windows environments.”

Indeed, platform integration is a big issue. By 2010, 75% of large companies will deploy open source software in combination with closed source software, according to Gartner.

Microsoft and Novell kicked off major integration projects in September 2007, including virtualization, directories and management, as part of the Interoperability Lab the two opened in Cambridge, Mass.

“Don’t be surprised in the coming year when you see Microsoft partnering with open source in some new ways that were unimaginable five years ago,” says Sam Ramji, director of technical platform strategy at Microsoft.

But the fruit of the Microsoft-Novell relationship, which has drawn some criticism, is only one aspect of what 2008 might hold.

Virtualization is poised to explode on corporate networks and there are many different open source hypervisor implementations available, mainly built on Xen.

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