Cloud Computing Made Easy

Open source software has in general been on the rise, and there’s no doubt
that it delivers many benefits to developers and end users alike. There are
numerous cloud computing services that are either written entirely in open
source code, or at least incorporating open source into the final
application. Two of the biggest advantages of open source are lower cost,
and greater flexibility, and these benefits fit well into the entire cloud
computing paradigm, which delivers the same. Open source in short,
enhances cloud computing’s promise to deliver greater cost savings and
flexibility to those who use it. It does this through two means:

First, by streamlining the development end by allowing developers the use of
existing open source code rather than “reinventing the wheel.” This model
correlates closely with the use of a cloud platform, which also allows cloud
applications developers to build applications on top of an existing
application infrastructure, so that routine functions need not be built from
scratch. Doing so not only provides an advantage in terms of reduced
development cost, it also has the advantage of allowing the developer to
access code that has already been proven. In this respect, cloud computing
applications, particularly cloud computing applications that have been built
using open source components, is more likely to be robust and possess
fewer flaws than an application built entirely from scratch from the ground
up.

Second, the open source paradigm answers the question, “What happens
to my cloud application if the provider goes out of business?” If cloudbased
applications are based on open software models, then if and when a
cloud provider goes out of business, an individual client could easily take
over their own applications if necessary, or transfer them to another
provider.

Is open software free software?

Here’s a quick answer to that question: No. Casual observers often
confuse these two very separate software movements. The “free software”
movement is an ideological platform that suggests that all software should
be free, and it is only practical in a very limited sense. The “open source”
movement is a technological platform that espouses open development,
because it allows for advantages such as continuous improvement of the
code base, and easier customization for individual users. The latter is
practical in almost all cases of software development.
Here’s a useful description from GNU:

” The two terms describe almost the same category of software, but they
stand for views based on fundamentally different values. Open source is a
development methodology; free software is a social movement. For the
free software movement, free software is an ethical imperative, because
only free software respects the users’ freedom. By contrast, the philosophy
of open source considers issues in terms of how to make software
‘better’—in a practical sense only. It says that nonfree software is an
inferior solution to the practical problem at hand. For the free software
movement, however, nonfree software is a social problem, and the
solution is to stop using it and move to free software.”1

This is an interesting concept, and fascinating fodder for ivory tower
discussions in university seminar rooms and coffee houses, but ultimately
an impractical one. Ultimately, it is true that open software is indeed a
methodology used to make software technologically superior, but the
above argument of course eliminates incentive to make the software in the
first place.

Open source delivers the advantages of:

• Flexibility to adapt and customize software to suit individual needs
• Lower cost of development
• More robust development due to continuous revision

Free software, on the other hand, constrains development by limiting that
development only to academics, hobbyists and people with too much time
on their hands, and would eliminate an entire class of development
professionals who create software for a living.

We advocate the use of open source in cloud-based platforms as well as
cloud-based applications for the above advantages, and most importantly,
to overcome the potential drawback of cloud providers going out of
business and leaving proprietary applications, which companies may have
come to depend on, inaccessible.

This blog brought to you courtesy of Virtual Global, the fastest and easiest way to the cloud.
_____________________________________
1 Richard Stallman. “Why open source misses the point of free software.” Free
Software Foundation.

Comments are closed.