By Jason Blais, Sr. Manager, Product Management at Mattermost
For every organization, building a tech stack is a critical decision. For organizations undergoing digital transformation, the criticality of these decisions is magnified by the need to align teams across all phases of the development lifecycle, while removing friction from the collaboration process and supporting increasingly sophisticated workflows for complex R&D procedures.
Quite frankly, it can be a lot to take on. And in increasingly dynamic environments where people and data are still siloed, an ineffective technology stack that lacks interoperability and automation can have devastating effects on productivity and profitability. To succeed in today’s fast-paced world, organizations must make smart investments in digital solutions that enable their developers and technical teams to move faster and increase operational agility.
Fortunately, flexible solutions to these challenges are not hard to find. In fact, they are open – and freely available.
As reported by McKinsey, more and more organizations of all sizes and across all industries are embracing the power of open source solutions to help customize and modify their workspaces to meet the needs of their enterprise software development environment and achieve a strategic advantage.
Here are four reasons why adopting open source technology can help organizations improve productivity, collaboration, and agility – while driving better technical and business outcomes without compromising security and control.
1. Extensibility and flexibility to customize to your own workflows
Suffice it to say the world of technology moves quickly. Kubernetes, for example, didn’t exist before 2014. But today, it’s impressively ubiquitous; according to the CNCF’s 2020 Cloud Native Survey, 91 percent of teams are using Kubernetes in some form.
One of the main reasons organizations are investing in open source is because it enables them to operate with agility and rapidly integrate new technologies into their stack. That’s compared to the more traditional approach around proprietary software, where teams would take quarters or even years to vet, implement, and adopt solutions – making it challenging for them to pivot with any sense of urgency.
Since open source solutions offer complete access to source code, teams can easily connect the software to the other tools they use every day. In addition to code, developers have full access to system APIs and the source code of other extensions, which enables them to quickly create robust, high-impact customizations to move their software development (and organizational objectives) forward.
Moreover, with open source projects, the product roadmap is a shared endeavor. Any developer in the world can read the source code, comment on it, suggest improvements, and create variations of their own.
Simply put, open source enables development teams to build the perfect solution for the tasks at hand, instead of being forced to change the way they work to fit into inflexible proprietary tools and architecture.
2. Enterprise-level security with full data control
In the age of high-profile data breaches, organizations need highly secure tools that enable them to keep sensitive data private.
When vulnerabilities exist in proprietary solutions, they’re often undiscovered until it’s too late. Unfortunately for the teams using these platforms, the lack of visibility into source code means they’re essentially outsourcing security to the specific vendor and hoping for the best.
Another main driver of open source adoption is the fact that open source tools enable organizations to take control over their own security. For example, open source projects – particularly those with large communities – tend to receive more security scrutiny and responsible vulnerability disclosures because everyone using the product can thoroughly inspect the source code.
Since the source code is freely available, such disclosures often come with detailed proposed solutions on how to fix bugs, which enables dev teams to remedy issues faster, continuously strengthening the software.
In the age of remote work, it’s more important than ever for distributed teams to be able to collaborate knowing that sensitive data stays protected. Since open source solutions allow developers and organizations to audit security while maintaining complete control over their data, these solutions can facilitate the high-trust collaboration needed to thrive in remote environments.
3. Freedom from vendor lock-in
According to a recent study, 68 percent of CIOs are concerned about vendor lock-in. They should be. When you’re locked into a piece of technology, you’re forced to live with someone else’s conclusions instead of making your own.
Proprietary solutions often make it challenging to take data with you in the event your organization switches vendors. Open source tools, on the other hand, offer the freedom and flexibility needed to avoid vendor lock-in and take data wherever an organization wants to go, including the continued development of cloud-native technologies that benefit from the underlying support of open source code and versatility.
4. Top talent and community involvement
As more and more companies embrace remote work, the war for talent is becoming even more competitive.
In the world of software development, landing top talent starts with giving engineers access to modern tools that enable them to reach their full potential at work. Since developers increasingly prefer open source solutions to their proprietary counterparts, organizations should strongly consider open source alternatives to the commercial solutions they currently leverage if they want to attract the best developers on the market.
Open source projects not only enable developers to customize their technology stacks and software development efforts but also provide the ability to participate in a broader, oftentimes vibrant community. Open source communities can work together to contribute to the roadmap and drive product improvements as well as efficiency in building the right features and functions.
In addition to making it easier to hire and retain top talent, open source platforms also enable companies to tap into a community of contributors for advice on how to walk through problems and how to get the most out of the platform. Plus, members of the community also contribute to open source projects directly and frequently receive recognition and support.
Open source offers freedom
Open source software is increasingly popular among enterprise teams, and for good reason. It gives teams the flexibility needed to productively build the perfect tool for the job with the support of a helpful community while enabling them to maintain a highly secure environment.
At the same time, an open source approach allows teams to maintain control of their data and their future rather than being locked into one vendor’s roadmap. And it also gives companies access to talented engineers and members of the open source community.
Add it all up, and if your organization is looking to truly drive competitive advantage and get to the next level, it’s time to embrace the power of open source software. The writing’s on the wall, and you’d be wise to read it.
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