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Open Source

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Is Your IT-Operational Cost giving you sleepless nights?

1 Switch to Open Source and invest smartly in your business after all it’s your money.

ANKIT SAWHNEY

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
AMITY BUSINESS SCHOOL
AMITY UNIVERSITY
June, 2010 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

After 10 weeks of hard work I am proud to finalize this work. Working with this project has given me valuable insights about the upcoming IT-trends. Hopefully this knowledge will be useful in upcoming carrier. It has also enhanced my skills regarding academic & scientific writing. I hope my project will be useful for further research & & that it might be useful as reading material for other students and others interested in this area.

Completing a task is not usually a one man effort and it often requires the effort, help and guidance from others. I sincerely thank my faculty Ms. Teena Bagga for providing me the opportunity to complete this project and handed me an experience and exposure which will help me endeavors of professional career.

Without her help and guidance, completion of this project wouldn’t have been possible. I would take this opportunity to extend my humble and grateful thanks to all those people who have directly and indirectly helped me to complete this project.

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

There is no doubt that without computers to flourish in this competitive world is not possible. As days passes by our dependency on these systems in increasing spirally. IT-infrastructure is becoming more advanced & complex day by day. With the dependency on IT the important concerns that have risen are the security & cost of the IT-infrastructure & data.

This project has tried to understand the various difficulties faced in IT & the benefits of using Open Source Solutions (OSS) to overcome these problems. This research explains how OSS can help organizations to grow with least cost & high data security. In order to explain the concept, this report tries to answer the basic questions asked about Open Source Solutions and try to reduce the myths about it.

Our main findings are that OSS can provide big potential of growth for the organizations. OSS can help to reduce the IT-infrastructure cost and also the downtime as compared to Proprietary Softwares. Also, OSS provides better security to the data as compared to its proprietary counterpart. But, the main concern is the less knowledge about it among the users that has lead to the construction of wall of myths that discourages the users to opt for it.

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Today computers have become an essential part of everybody's life. Neither individuals nor organizations can flourish without the IT-Support. But, each thing that brings some benefits comes with some matter of concern also. We have made IT the backbone of the organizations but with it comes the pain areas like cost, maintenance, security etc. also. Today, Proprietary softwares have a monopoly in the IT-market. These softwares are surely according to the user's need but the cost and the restrictions associated with it cause a lot of trouble.

In 1984 a movement was initiated in the field of IT. This movement was called the Freedom Movement. The movement was to provide freedom from all the IT, source code & user restrictions etc. The results of this movement are Open Source Solutions (OSS) ranging from Operating System to code development, from internet browser to office suit, from media applications to designing applications, in many cases the Open Source version is better than its proprietary counterpart. This movement has changed our lives very much. The simplest example of it that you have been using for a long time is “WIKIPEDIA”, even a kid knows that if for any definition or to gather details about anything about history he should first visit this website. This website promotes Open Source by provide information to everyone free. The result is that Wikipedia has replaced Britannica to a great extent. This is one of the many examples of how Open Source solutions are slowly entering our lives and making big changes. With a span of time, many more such examples would be visible to us and the effect would be able to change any aspect of our lives.

Open Source is an approach to design, develop and distribute practical accessibility to a product's source. Open Source Software are released with source code under GPL (General Public license) that ensures that derivative works will also be available as source code and protects certain rights of the original authors. It prohibits restrictions on how the software can be used or who can use it. The open-source concept was popularized through GNU and the G.P.L., and it has spread ever since, in an increasingly rapid manner. The open-source OS, Linux, has been growing in users exponentially over the last few years, and while it still has a ways to go before it can challenge Microsoft or Apple, it has become a viable and even desirable alternative for many.

Answers to some important and frequent inquires about Open Source Solutions:-

Q) How S.M.E`s can benefit from Open Source Solutions?
Nobody can deny the fact that the most important intangible asset for the organization is its data and each organization is trying to make its IT-operations cost-effective, efficient and secured. The solution to all these matters is Open Source. In every field it’s ahead of respective proprietary solutions. Today, many organizations has understood the potential of the Open Source, many have migrated to OSS thus saving millions in their IT-operation expenses. Open Source also provides a big lucrative market for other organizations to market its services.

There is a need for greater promotion of the use of open source software for information and communication technology (ICT)-based teaching and learning. Open source software has a distinct cost advantage over the expensive commercial software packages. Let us understand it through various case studies:- a) In 2008, the Tamil Nadu State govt. decided to provide over 100,000 laptops to students for less than Rs. 40,000 for which they contacted Microsoft to install Windows in every laptop for around Rs. 600 but Microsoft gave the bundled offer of Windows and MS-Office for Rs. 3000 which made the total plan go out of budget, then ELCOT(Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu) who was the buyer of these laptops on the behalf of students decided to go for Open Source and this decision really benefited them. b) The Kerala Govt. has also decided to shift its schools to Open Source Solutions thus reducing the IT-expenses.

There are various advantages of using OSS over Proprietary Software’s which can help organizations to increase their efficiency and productivity. The major advantages are:

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SWOT Analysis- Open Source
|Strengths |Weakness |
| | |
|Zero License fee so no need for pirated S/w |The process of installing an application is somewhat different and|
|Virus Free. |requires an expert. |
|Highly Secured. |All S/w are not available as Open Source |
|High on performance with lower H/w configuration | |
|Opportunities |Threats |
| | |
|Opportunity to reduce the organization’s IT-operational expenses. | |
| |The unawareness of the benefits and feasibility of Open Source |
|Companies facing a lot of trouble in the field of virus attacks and |applications. |
|security threats are finding a permanent solution for it. | |

Q) Name some Softwares are available as Open Source?
A big myth about OSS has been that Software’s are not easily available and if they are then their operation is completely different from their Proprietary counterpart. But, the fact is there are various applications available for Open Source. Generally, a S/w available for Proprietary O.S. are compatible with Open Source O.S. or their Open Source version is available. Below is the list of some of the applications:-

|Software |Purpose |
|Linux |Operating System |
|Open Office |Office Suit |
|My SQL |Database |
|Open VPN |Connectivity with branches and Laptop |
|Thunderbird |Email Client |
|Firefox |Internet Browser |
|Apache |Web Server |
|Sugar CRM |For Customer Relationship Management |
|BackupPc |To take backup of users |
|Squid Proxy |Proxy Server |
|Postfix |Mailing Solution |
|Zoneminder |For Surveillances |
|Xen |Used for Virtualization |
|Joomla |Content Management System |
|Squirrel Mail |For Accessing mail through web |

Myths and Facts -OSS (Linux Operating System)
|Myths |Facts |
| |Source code availability facilitates: |
| |> Scrutiny by many people to flush out weaknesses in design and code |
|OSS insecure as source code is available | |
| |> Independent check and audit |
|Not User-friendly |GUI Windowing system very much the default |
| |interface. |
|Big Companies don't use OSS |About 86% of Fortune 1000 companies are deploying or testing OSS. 26% |
| |of large companies are mentioning the use of Linux on the desktop, and |
| |a much larger percentage are reporting the use OpenOffice.org and |
| |Firefox |

Q) Open Source might be beneficial but isn’t it a costly? From all this we can believe that Open Source is beneficial is the need of the hour but still organizations think OSS to be a costly affair. This is also a big myth; just see the comparison and you’ll realize the scenario:-

|Particulars |Windows |Linux |Remarks |
|Operating System |Rs. 8200 |Nil |OSS requires Zero Licensing fees |
|Anti-Virus Pack |Rs. 1500 p.a. |Not Required |OSS are virtually Virus free thus no Anti-Virus |
| | | |needed |
|Office Suit |Rs. 15100 |Nil |Open Office has same features as MSOffice & |
| | | |available Online |
|Hardware Cost(Extra) |Rs. 5000 approx. |Not required |Most OSS needs low H/w configuration as compared |
| | | |to Windows |
|Total |Rs. 29,800* |Nil |*(The cost is an estimation) |

So if on every computer if we can save over Rs. 29,000* just compute the total savings The OSS can bring with it for the organizations which they can invest in their core operations rather than purchasing proprietary software’s and dealing with other problems also like high downtime, virus attacks etc.

Q) OK, accepted but I don’t believe that OSS would reduce my IT-operation expenses to big extent?

Instead of saying much let us analyze the facts and figures:- υ 60% of web servers run on Apache υ LIC saved Rs 42 Crores by Adopting OSS υ Sheela Group's IT efficiency increased by 50% & saves Rs 40L p.a. υ Downtime of Desktop Environment in Usha Martin reduced by 80% υ MMFSL installed OSS for its Loan & Collection System at 1/4th cost υ Indo Asian Fusegear Ltd saved around Rs 5 Crores by shifting to OSS υAnd many many more....

If still there are some doubts then just see this graph:-

LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project); an example of OSS has reduced the IT-operation Expenses by more than 4 times*.

CONCLUSION

OSS provides a vast potential of growth to the organizations. It can lead to reduction of cost my manifolds. Security, performance, downtime & cost effectiveness are the important features that defines the IT-infrastructure of an organization. Also, these attributes are the most important concern for them as there are very few examples of companies who are able to achieve their objective of IT-effectiveness target.

But, the biggest roadblock towards the effective use of OSS is the less knowledge about it that has lead to various myths revolving around it. If the IT-service providers educate the organizations about the effectiveness of OSS, then the chances of converting the prospect organizations who are dissatisfied with their IT-infrastructure & are planning to upgrade it could be definitely encouraged to opt for Open Source Solutions and register their name with other organizations that after opting for Open Source Solutions has grown rapidly.

So, invest in Open Source & gain huge benefits!!!!

REFERENCES

www.ubuntu.org www.opensource.org www.openoffice.org www.linuxjournal.com www.linux-watch.com www.ltsp.org www.nagios.org www.joomla.org www.vcantech.com www.safebanking.za -----------------------
Zero Licensing Fees

[pic]

Good shield against Virus

High Performance

Low Maintenance

[pic]

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