Not your father’s Open Source Software

I joined Zenoss from a proprietary and very successful software company.  I am talking about Mercury Interactive which was acquired by HP.  When my former Mercury friends heard that I was leaving a successful career to join an open source software company, they were surprised and sometimes discouraging.  In fact, I find that most people who work in proprietary software companies in Silicon Valley either under estimate or simply don’t understand open source software.

This is not necessarily their fault.  Their perception of open source is best summed up by Audrey Rasmussen in the article “Open source system management suites: A viable alternative? http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid80_gci1268233,00.html.” 

Audrey writes most people think of open source software as “the typical techie-oriented, do-it-yourself open source tools that have been available for quite a while.”  I know this perception very well.

  
During my career at Mercury, I faced open source competition, and my attitude towards it was one of ignorance.  When I used to receive frantic phone calls from sales people facing free or almost free open source competition, I used to tell them “Ask your customer who they will call for support.  I bet it is 2 guys in Alabama working out of their garage.”  So when I told my friends that I was leaving a good career at HP Software to join an open source company out of Annapolis, MD, they thought that I was going to work out of someone’s garage.

I am here to tell you that open source software companies are not any different than proprietary vendors.  Most start up as a small project.  Some find traction and even funding.  After that, some grow up and do great things like RedHat.  Others get acquired for multi millions of dollars like XenSource and yet some others disappear due to lack of long term interest or success.  This story is not different for proprietary vendors vs. open source software companies.

This means that today the playing field is leveled.  Good software ideas regardless of their licensing mechanism will find users, supporters, customers and financiers.  The new breed of open source software companies have in their management a good mix of experienced executives, open source advocates and VCs with funds. 

These companies provide very high quality support and differentiate themselves based on their ability to deliver top notch software and services.  They address the needs of their users and customers while keeping the faith that good products will eventually rise to the top.  They know how to compete with the proprietary vendors and they have been out of garage for a long time.  The proprietary software companies failed to notice them because they have their head stuck in the sand.  The new breed of open source software companies are different, and they are not your father’s open source software company. 

Murat Aksu

VP of Marketing at Zenoss