Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Enterprise Architecture and Free Software
Simon Phipps who is Chief Open Source Officer for Sun has some interesting perspectives that enterprise architects really need to noodle...
I wonder if my peers at work have figured out how we can use open source to solve some of our hiring problems. There is always a demographic of folk that have absolutely zero interest in working for a large enterprise and refer to us that do as being enterprisey. Chris Petrilli and James Robertson come to mind. The key thing that we need to noodle is how to leverage their knowledge and wisdom without actually hiring them. This requires that we understand and leverage their individual motives and figuring out ways to get them to contribute to open source projects that matter to us.
The interesting thing about web 2.0 is that it acknowledges that for the most part we already have access to software we need and that the real problem is the ability to combine and assemble it with other parts. Most importantly, unlike enterprise software, we don't have to pay for it before we actually start using it and instead pay when it starts providing value. This means no more shelfware.
Simon suggests that enterprise architects need to be cognizant of how software is sold and that we seriously need to get our noodles smacked if we don't start shifting away from the "right to use" model that is so pervasive and wasteful and instead migrate towards a value oriented model.
| | View blog reactionsI wonder if my peers at work have figured out how we can use open source to solve some of our hiring problems. There is always a demographic of folk that have absolutely zero interest in working for a large enterprise and refer to us that do as being enterprisey. Chris Petrilli and James Robertson come to mind. The key thing that we need to noodle is how to leverage their knowledge and wisdom without actually hiring them. This requires that we understand and leverage their individual motives and figuring out ways to get them to contribute to open source projects that matter to us.
The interesting thing about web 2.0 is that it acknowledges that for the most part we already have access to software we need and that the real problem is the ability to combine and assemble it with other parts. Most importantly, unlike enterprise software, we don't have to pay for it before we actually start using it and instead pay when it starts providing value. This means no more shelfware.
Simon suggests that enterprise architects need to be cognizant of how software is sold and that we seriously need to get our noodles smacked if we don't start shifting away from the "right to use" model that is so pervasive and wasteful and instead migrate towards a value oriented model.
