Powering the modern enterprise with open source software

Idit Levine at Solo.io explains why open source software has become the preferred choice for the modern enterprise

 

It’s hard to imagine a world without the internet. The system that underpins nearly every aspect of how we work, learn and communicate with billions of people around the world is powered by millions of computers.

 

And none of it would be possible if not for an incredible innovation that many have never heard of – open source software. Just over three decades ago, a small group of computer engineers created Linux, the free operating system that would go on to power the internet, mobile phones, self-driving cars, and most of the computers we interact with today.

 

Open source software is helping some of the largest companies in the world digitally interact with their customers, by connecting and securing the world’s modern applications and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

 

These companies choose products that are built upon open source standards because they know that they will deliver cutting-edge innovation today and well into the future. They also choose open source technologies because they have been proven to work for the most demanding internet environments, and because the security of the software has been reviewed by thousands of developers.

 

Here’s why you should consider it for your business too.

 

Collaboration at the heart of innovation

Open source software was created with the idea that software should be freely available for use by anyone. It stood in stark contrast to the expensive, proprietary software and hardware that was used by all computer systems at the time.

 

If a large company wanted to change their software to create a new business idea, they would first have to pay large sums of money to a vendor to make the change. And if a small company wanted to make a change, those costs were likely outside of their budget.

 

Open source unlocked the potential for innovation to come from any company, or any individual, no matter where in the world they resided. Open source created the whole concept of communities of software developers that would work together to collectively solve complex technology problems, with the end results being made freely available for anyone to use.

 

Fast forward to today and every major technology company, from Apple to Google to Facebook to Tesla to Netflix has adopted open source at the core of their offerings.

 

But open source is not just limited to Silicon Valley companies. It has also been adopted by major corporations that are reshaping how technology powers their businesses in the 21st century. Automakers use it to create autonomous driving cars. Healthcare companies use it to find cures for diseases more quickly. Retail companies are using it to completely reshape how we shop, have goods delivered, and interact with their supply-chains.

 

With open source, new ideas spread rapidly, and new innovations can be built on the shoulders of previous ones.

 

Ultimately, companies choose to use open source technologies because they deliver the best of both worlds. They gain access to the leading innovations in Artificial Intelligence, APIs, security, Machine Learning, and cloud-native applications. And they can do it without having to hire hundreds of in-house engineers.

 

Your API is your business

The modern enterprise is choosing open source because in today’s world, every business decision is ultimately a technology decision. Some of the most powerful companies are only represented to the world as an API. And the companies that will succeed must be as good at delivering software as they are at building cars, creating new drugs or financing capital markets.

 

The modern enterprise is choosing open source because they want access to the world’s best software developers, and because they want to differentiate themselves, knowing that their future investments will work with the next-generation of technology.

 

For the modern enterprise, they must balance between the rigours of industry regulations and the threats from disruptive startups. They must balance between security and stability, and innovation and agility. And in the past, these trade-offs were binary decisions. But that has all changed with open source.

 

The modern enterprise can now get access to the same software that is used to power Silicon Valley tech giants. And they can develop applications using the same patterns (‘cloud-native microservices’) that allow tech giants to make changes to their software hundreds of times a day. 

 

Challenges overcome

As we’ve seen, there are many benefits to the open approach but what we do know is almost all companies are a complex mix of technologies - old and new, open and closed. The exciting next stage in the evolution of enterprise computing will see the lines blur between proprietary and open software as integration and heterogeneity become priorities.

 

However, they need to be cautious and choose the right application networking company to help them get there. The discussion is becoming that of best of breed and so never has the choice of technology been so important.

 

Can your application networking solution talk as well to your legacy data-centre workloads as it can to the cloud? Can your API security system decipher new, logic-based threats? The truth is, how well your open source solutions interface with often highly mixed environments will make all the difference in the coming years.

 

Ultimately, the beauty of the compute models of the future will be the freedom with which companies can operate the best open and proprietary technologies side-by-side, regardless of their origin or nature. And, just like the internet, the modern enterprise will be built on the shoulders of open innovation.

 

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Idit Levine is Founder & CEO, Solo.io

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com