Open Source`s New Frontier

Open-source technologies are making their mark on a growing number of IT areas, including CRM, VoIP and mobility.

By now, every CIO should be aware of the enterprise potential of Linux and other popular open-source software offerings. But the number and breadth of open-source projects has increased steadily over the years, and organizations can apply these tools to virtually any type of business process.

Three emerging areas in which open source could make a dramatic difference for businesses are voice over IP (VoIP) telephony, customer relationship management (CRM) and mobility.

Today, companies generally employ open source in limited ways. “It’s primarily being used in a tactical fashion in skunkworks projects and in internal infrastructure efforts,” says Bernard Golden, CEO of Navica, a systems integration and consulting firm that focuses on open source.

Some organizations overtly favor open- source implementations over proprietary options, using the latter only when necessary. But hardly any enterprises have begun to recast their IT strategy with open source at its foundation.

Industry research backs that up. Open source is not a high priority among strategic software initiatives today. Instead, businesses use it as a tactical tool for achieving mission-critical initiatives, such as implementing enterprise collaboration strategies, adopting service-oriented architecture (SOA) and implementing Web 2.0, according to a December 2007 report by Forrester Research, an IT research and advisory firm.

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