The importance of Open Source in a SaaS based world

Krishnan SubramanianEntrepreneur & Independent Researcher

Krishworld.com

Who Am I?

• Entrepreneur• Independent Researcher• Lead Blogger at Cloud Avenue

Email: krishnan@krishworld.comWeb: www.krishworld.com

Plan for this talk

• Introduction• Open Source and SaaS: Defining the

problem• Importance of Open Source in SaaS: Framing

the thesis• Role of Open Source at the infrastructure

level of SaaS• Impact of Open Source reusable components

in the SaaS ecosystem• SaaS Applications itself as Open Source• Conclusion

Introduction

• Open Source is a philosophical platform• Open Source is a good development model• SaaS is a good delivery model• Lots of confusion regarding Open Source

and SaaS• Can Open Source and SaaS coexist? Yes, We

Can!!• Proposing an ecosystem where Open Source

plays an important role in SaaS' success

Defining the problem

• GPL, the leader in the license pack• ASP/SaaS Loophole• Tim O' Reilly pointed it out in 1999 and RMS

dismissed it• Birth of web services and its evolution into Web 2.0

and SaaS• Tim O' Reilly comes back and says GPL is obsolete• Birth of GPLv3 and the continued existence of

ASP/SaaS Loophole. AGPLv3 closes the loophole • Tim O' Reilly emphasizes on architecture over

licensing• FUD on Open Source and SaaS

Importance of Open Source in SaaS

Open Source is important • for the infrastructure and platform on

which SaaS apps reside• in terms of reusable components shared

by SaaS vendors• in terms of availability of source code or

virtual appliances for SaaS apps

Open Source & SaaS Infrastructure

• Open Source LAMP stack was responsible for the start of SaaS revolution

• Low Cost of implementation & Flexibility• Lack of licensing restrictions lead to the

proliferation of Cloud architectures• Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python, Java, Rails

played crucial role in SaaS evolution

Open Source & SaaS Infrastructure

• Open Source Virtualization technologies are the next big enablers

• Virtualization technologies helped push the idea of multi-tenancy

• Virtualization helps SaaS providers manage rapid release cycles

• Virtualization offers SaaS providers with more flexibility

• Virtualizations helps drive the idea of SaaS appliances inside the enterprises

• Xen and KVM helping this trend

Open Source & SaaS Infrastructure

• Open Source also plays a much bigger role in the Cloud infrastructure platform

• Open Source Cloud fabric• Open Source platforms for deploying and

managing elastic infrastructure• Open Source and Cloud Storage • Eucalyptus, Nimbus, etc. • Enomaly Elastic Computing Platform,  rPath

rBuilder, CohesiveFT's Elastic servers, etc.• CleverSafe and Cloud Store File System

Open Source Reusable Components and SaaS

• SaaS vendors take a leaf out of Open Source community and share reusable components under Open Source Licenses

• Google Gears is a perfect example• Google Gears used by other SaaS providers

like Zoho, Mindmeister, etc. to provide offline functionality

• Mindtouch is another example. They contribute Mindtouch platform, SGMLreader and Mindtouch Dream

• Used by Shelfari, NEC, etc..

SaaS Apps Under Open Source Licenses

• SaaS applications under Open Source license is nothing new

• Wordpress has been doing it for years• Mindtouch and SugarCRM are other

players• Ultimate flexibility• Other advantages of Open Source

applies here

SaaS Apps Under Open Source Licenses

• No risks of vendors going out of business taking the apps down with them

• Helps pushing SaaS applications into the enterprises

• Integration is easy• Helps promote Virtual Application

Appliances

Conclusion

• Open Source isn't going anywhere• Open Source becomes all the more important

in the SaaS based world• Open Source is important on the

infrastructure side• Open Source helps component reuse much

like SOA• Open Source Applications empowers users• We imagine a SaaS ecosystem where Open

Source plays an important role, contributing to the very success of SaaS itself.

Thank You