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03.02.09 Making Government More Secure With Open Source  By Dan MorrillIf you are the British government, you are seriously thinking about it, and Scott McNeely is looking at the same thing for the Obama administration. This could get interesting. I have personally wanted a technology savvy president for years now, but what is happening right now with the US Government examining the idea of using more open source software, and the British government looking at a 600 million pound (900 million dollar) savings, that money can be saved and rolled into other programs that need it. Mr Tiemann said while some departments already use open source technologies, overall it has been estimated that the global loss due to proprietary software is "in excess of $1 trillion a year." He claimed that the conservative cost for the US is from " $400bn (£290bn) and upwards." "A move to open source will lower costs and increase capability," said Mr Tiemann who is also the vice-president of Red Hat, the world's leading open source technology solutions provider. Source: BBC
Ok, I use open source, I love Linux, Windows and Apple. I can move between all three platforms without thinking about it, but I have to throw the flag on the save a trillion dollars a year. The market cap of Microsoft is 150.87 Billion, IBM 115.4 Billion, and Oracle 81.95 billion. Even if these companies were to vaporize today, there is no way that anyone is going to save a trillion dollars a year by going to open source. Open source is great when you need to build something quick, something that will work, but not all open source is great, and not all closed source is great. Smart shoppers will get software that meets their needs, open or closed source, at a price point they think they can tolerate. There are hidden costs in every technology you will purchase, from education and training, to hardware, programming, and support costs. Open source makes its money from support and custom programming. Closed makes it on sales, service, and in some cases custom development. But really, a trillion dollars, when the combined market cap of the companies quoted by Mr. Tiemann only comes to some 348 billion. For that kind of awesome savings, you would want to look at the entire computer industry, throw Apple in there, and a host of mid and small tier companies just to get there. Open source has its place, but we are back to the Open Closed source hype cycle, with outrageous numbers being thrown around. The sad part is that I thought this was over with. Comments About the Author: Dan Morrill has been in the information security field for 18 years, both civilian and military, and is currently working on his Doctor of Management. Dan shares his insights on the important security issues of today through his blog, Managing Intellectual Property & IT Security, and is an active participant in the ITtoolbox blogging community. |
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