Tachometry Corporation
Over the past five years, Tachometry has led the way to implement the best of open source solutions. While many open source business models have come and gone, Tachometry's commitment to focus on representing the competitive open source advantage on behalf of our clients has paid off. By aligning with the business unit, we bring what is needed to the untapped supply of technology -- real business requirements.
While the technology is exciting and open source has driven the industry to new heights in encouraging the adoption of standards, technology for technology's sake alone leaves little to be desired. Following market triggers like the emerging support and service models teamed with an increasing number of businesses realizing the return on their open source investment, we look forward with confidence to the continued success of open source initiatives.
While open source software is neither a new idea, nor have the related business models matured to the point of full acceptance, the industry has made very promising advancements over the course of the past several years. By laying our experiences and observations over Gartner's Hype Cycle, it is clear that the coming years are very promising for the successful growth of open source adoption.
Open Source Hype Cycle
From Skunkworks to Mainstream
By 2003 the high-profile open source projects like the Linux operating system and the Apache web server were well understood to be among the best software on the market. Even Apple computer stopped releasing their standard operating system in sole favor of OS X, which is built on top of the open BSD operating system. However, the enterprise was still reluctant to move from traditional procurement models and openly adopt open source. Relegated to the position of skunkworks projects, developers were quickly gobbling up open source tools and building proof of concepts more rapidly than ever before. As these innovations worked their way up the management chain, momentum started to build for an influx of investment capital and new ideas.
As adoption moved up from the operating system into the application stack, enterprise users realized that there were still substantial challenges with maintenance and version control, along with compatibility across multiple projects and technologies. During the "dip" of 2005-2007, many organizations had to let go of the irrational exuberance around open source, finding a balance point for using this resource effectively within the organization.
With significant innovation, consolidation, and adoption continuing through 2008 and beyond, we expect tremendous growth and new opportunity for businesses of all shapes and sizes to leverage the amazing benefits of free and open source software.