8 Advantages Of Using Open Source In The Enterprise

Selecting the right technology for your enterprise entails making long-term commitments to solutions that will support a busy, growing organization.

Therefore, it necessitates significant thought and forethought.

When a company invests in an improper solution, it frequently ends up with far higher development expenses and less flexibility, both of which can be detrimental in the long run.

Today, more organizations are discovering the significant advantages that open source solutions have over their proprietary counterparts.

As the enterprise mentality toward open source continues to develop, open-source software adoption has exploded at the enterprise level over the last decade.

8 Advantages of using open source in the enterprise

Although open-source software has been available for a long time, it was only in the last decade that it became generally recognized and widely employed.

However, many organizations are yet to adopt it.

While some people are still not sure whether to adopt open source, its deployment and acceptance rates are ever-expanding.

Open source is the “way of life” for many developers.

Many of the world’s best and brightest programmers devote their time and energy to developing and promoting open-source projects.

Here are eight reasons why your organization should also adopt open source tech:

1. Uncompromised data security with OSINT tools

In a vulnerable world, commercial open source has a proven track record when it comes to information security.

Obviously, it’s tough to claim security superiority for any solution, and it’s a difficult climate for all of us, but the open-source community and suppliers have been highly attentive to information security issues.

An advantage of open source is that you have eyes on code that’s decades old.

As a result, problems can be discovered and addressed as soon as they arise.

The level of security that open source technology brings to the table can be measured by the rise in popularity of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools.

OSINT tools like SEON are widely deployed by cybersecurity experts to identify external threads, as well as for ethical hacking and penetration testing purposes.

The same approaches are used by private detectives, law enforcement agencies, and journalists to learn more about a crime, suspect, organization, or person of interest.

Similarly, HR professionals can run background checks on potential applicants by using open source directories.

2. Agility and flexibility at their best

IT leaders must ensure that their organization is always flexible and agile. Your organization will be left behind in today’s hyper-competitive world if you can’t compete on agility.

Open source allows for technological flexibility by providing multiple solutions to the problems at hand. This is another one of the advantages of using open source.

When a company expands to meet increased demand, it expects its software to expand accordingly and meet the ever-evolving requirements as well.

Open-source code is flexible enough to adapt to changing business conditions, making it an excellent solution for businesses of all scales.

Making changes is a simple process because all of the source material is available online, which is sufficient to get your in-house development team started on the required improvements.

When you have a system that scales to your individual needs, balancing your workload and achieving peak performance becomes simple.

While a certain capability might not be available from a vendor’s end, open-source software keeps your IT department from getting static. You need not rely on the vendor to deliver that particular feature; you can create it on your own.

When it comes to vulnerabilities and bug reports, open source is usually quite quick to respond, with patches and upgrades arriving in days or even hours. These upgrades are frequently available right away.

However, with proprietary software, you may have to wait for months for the following edition to fix an issue.

Users may usually see and try out new features as they evolve early in the development cycle. This enables enterprises to embrace new project versions more quickly.

3. The power of community

Open source enterprise solutions frequently have robust communities surrounding them. This vast community is generally united by a similar desire to support and grow a solution that benefits both the organization and the community.

A large number of talents can produce significant results together.

A community of brilliant individuals working together produces not only more ideas but also faster development and debugging when problems arise.

4. Open source guarantees speed

In today’s fast-paced world, where people are looking for instant gratification and solutions, speed is that vital aspect your organization should focus on.

With open source solutions, you can achieve speed.

One of the most appealing aspects of open source is the ability to get started using community versions, see whether they can solve your business problem, and start generating value right away.

This gives you the ability to get started fast and cheaply, as well as the capacity to build up to a large-scale, fully supported, enterprise-grade installation without having to jump through proprietary licensing hoops.

Not to mention that having a vast variety of options allows organizations to quickly change course if something goes wrong. This particular functionality ensures enhanced operational efficiency.

5. Cost-effective solutions

In most cases, open source is far less expensive than a proprietary solution.

That’s not all, as open source solutions also allow businesses to start small and continue expanding.

Given how often businesses are strapped for cash, it only makes sense to look at open source solutions.

Depending on how interconnected and intricate you want your final product to be, proprietary software can be very expensive at times.

When it comes to core infrastructure, proprietary software increases the risk of becoming locked in by the vendor or technology.

If this occurs, businesses may find themselves at the whim of vendor price hikes. It also comes with a lack of flexibility from which they cannot simply and quickly escape.

For instance, today’s web-centric world requires all businesses to have an online presence.

With so many website building solutions out there, both third-party proprietary and open-source, it’s easy to get confused about which one to choose.

Some might argue that third-party proprietary platforms offer more support and customization options.

Nevertheless, that is not true. Open source solutions, like WordPress, are ruling the web. This is because of the wide array of functionalities that it offers that are otherwise missing in proprietary ‘branded’ platforms and the ease of SEO.

The main point is that the software is so low-cost that it has no substantial financial impact on the business.

Therefore, with open source code, you need not worry about maintenance fees or recurring licenses. And that means you will save money in the long run.

6. Transparency

You gain full insight into the code base, as well as any discussions about how the community develops features and fixes defects when you use open source code.

Secretly built proprietary code, on the other hand, may have unforeseen limitations and other undesirable surprises.

With open source, you’re secure from lock-in risks and can see exactly what you’re getting.

We all know how crucial SEO is for your online business.

However, it is a shame that most web builder applications do not offer you total control over their SEO settings.

In this scenario, open-source platforms like WordPress saves your day. You are in total control of every possible aspect of website building.

7. Reliability

To attain stability and dependability, open-source software significantly relies on user feedback.

As open-source technology evolves, a slew of new options and opportunities for both small and large organizations emerge.

As there are more eyes constantly monitoring it, open-source codes have a higher level of dependability. Rather than a single team within a single organization supporting a codebase, open-source code is generated on public forums and mentored by specialists.

The ultimate result is usually incredibly stable, tried-and-true code.

As it stands, it is no surprise that in today’s world, open-source code powers approximately 90% of the internet and is being rapidly embraced by major corporations.

8. Integrated management and minimum license requirements

You can profit from integrated management by employing open-source software.

Web-based enterprise administration (WBEM) and common information model (CIM) are two technologies employed by open-source software.

You can integrate and mix application, server, service, and workstation administration with these high-end solutions.

The administration would be more efficient as a result of this integration.

You would not need to worry about licenses if you used open-source software. You can install and deploy open source code multiple times and use it from any location.

Gone are the days when you had to worry about monitoring and tracking your licensing compliance.

Conclusion

Open source infrastructure is increasingly being used to build mobile, web, and cloud solutions.

Future tech developments and architectures will almost certainly be based on open source.

Even today, most mobile solutions are built with the Android platform, which is an open-source technology.

A majority of web solutions are built using WordPress. Not only that but the vast majority of cloud solutions as well are built using open source. That shows how popular these open-source platforms have become over the last decade or so.

Judging by the trend, it is justified to imagine a world where open source will be the industry standard.

Hence, this might be the right time your organization switches to open source platforms. It is believed to be an excellent long-term investment.

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