Benefits of open source software

Top 10 Reasons to Use Open Source Software

Published April 2023

Dattell specializes in support for open source software:  OpenSearch, Kafka, and Pulsar.  The benefits of using open source software are vast.  Learn about the top 10 reasons companies choose open source software.

#1 Lower Costs

Open source software is often available for free, allowing companies to save on software licensing fees. For example, a startup can use open source software like OpenSearch to build their database without having to pay for a proprietary content management system. (Click here to learn about managed OpenSearch.)

#2 Flexibility

Open source software can be customized and modified to meet the specific needs of a business. A healthcare company, for instance, can use an open source electronic medical records system like OpenEMR and modify it to meet their specific requirements.

#3 Community Support

Open source software often has a large community of developers who contribute to the software, providing support and helping to identify and fix bugs. The open source database management system MySQL has a large community of users who provide support and contribute to the software’s development.

#4 Security

Open source software can be more secure than proprietary software because the source code is available for review by anyone. This allows vulnerabilities to be identified and addressed quickly.  The open source web application firewall ModSecurity is known for its robust security features and is widely used by companies to protect their web applications.

#5 Innovation

Open source software often leads to more innovation because anyone can contribute to the software’s development. For example, the open source event streaming software Apache Spark has revolutionized in-memory caching and query execution and has been widely adopted by companies like Netflix and Uber.

#6 Interoperability

Open source software is often designed to work with other open source software, making it easier for companies to integrate different technologies. Companies can use open source software like Apache Kafka for real-time data streaming and Apache Storm for real-time data processing, which can be integrated to create a powerful big data processing pipeline.  (Click here to learn about managed Kafka.)

#7 Vendor Independence

Open source software allows companies to be less dependent on a specific vendor, giving them more control over their technology stack. A company can use the open source office suite LibreOffice instead of Microsoft Office, reducing their dependence on Microsoft.

#8 Longevity

Open source software is often developed and maintained by a community of developers, which can increase the likelihood of the software remaining available and up-to-date over the long term. For example, the open source operating system Linux has been around for decades and is widely used in enterprise environments. In fact, a developer revealed in 2019 that Linux is used more on Microsoft’s own cloud, Azure, than Windows.

#9 Transparency

Open source software provides transparency into the software’s development process, which can help companies make informed decisions about whether to adopt the software. The open source customer relationship management system SuiteCRM, for instance, provides a roadmap of its development plans and solicits feedback from its community of users.

#10 Access to Talent

Because open source software is widely used and often well-documented, companies can find developers with experience working with the software more easily. For example, a company looking for a developer with experience working with the open source content management system Drupal can find candidates with that experience publicly by looking at the github commit log.

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Dattell - Kafka & Elasticsearch Support

Benefit from the experience of our Kafka, Pulsar, Elasticsearch, and OpenSearch expert services to help your team deploy and maintain high-performance platforms that scale. We support Kafka, Elasticsearch, and OpenSearch both on-prem and in the cloud, whether on stand alone clusters or running within Kubernetes. We’ve saved our clients $100M+ over the past six years. Without our guidance companies tend to overspend on hardware or purchase unnecessary licenses. We typically save clients multiples more money than our fees cost in addition to building, optimizing, and supporting fault-tolerant, highly available architectures.