Is Linux Killing The Enterprise Software Model?

BOSTON — Open source startups are changing the rules of the traditional
enterprise software market. At least that’s what a panel made up of MySQL,
JBoss, SugarCRM and XenSource heads and moderated by VA Software chairman Larry
Augustin was happy to proclaim loudly and clearly at a LinuxWorld session here this week.

John Roberts, CEO and co-founder of open source CRM vendor SugarCRM, asked
rhetorically whether spending most of an enterprise software vendor’s money
on product marketing, as is usually the case, is the right way to go. Roberts
argued that open source provides a more efficient model for software that
costs less.

Peter Levine, the new CEO of XenSource chimed in that it was mind boggling to him how
much attention Xen has gotten without spending any money on sales or marketing.

“Here we are, a small company, and it’s amazing to me how visible the brand
and the technology are,” Levine said.

Brand alone isn’t enough to pay the bills for an open source company.

Marc Fleury founder and CEO of JBoss commented that open source has
significantly lowered barriers to how customer sales cycles work. With open
source, customers simply download the applicant and they try it out.

MySQL CEO Marten Mickos noted, however, that you still have to close
the deal.

MySQL 5 has had approximately 50,000 downloads a day since its
release, which presents a particular problem when it comes to leads and lead
qualification.

This article was first published on InternetNews.com. To read the full article, click here.

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

• Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  December 04, 2020

• Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 18, 2020

• Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  November 10, 2020

• Top 10 AIOps Companies

  FEATURE |  By Samuel Greengard,
  November 05, 2020

• What is Text Analysis?

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 02, 2020

• How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 29, 2020

• Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 23, 2020

• The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 16, 2020

• Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  October 07, 2020

• Finding a Career Path in AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  October 05, 2020

• CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  September 25, 2020

• Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 25, 2020

• Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  September 22, 2020

• NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 18, 2020

• Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 14, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 13, 2020

• IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 11, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  September 09, 2020

• Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 05, 2020

• The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  August 14, 2020