What are the major strategic motivations behind the enterprise's contribution to open source projects

Most companies gain a lot of competitive advantage by using open source software, which is beyond doubt. But on the other side, what benefits can a company derive from its contribution to open source?

While GM has gained some "feedback" for creating altruism, what businesses need is to get more feedback and benefits in this way. What is the economic motivation behind the initiative to contribute millions of lines of code, like Google or Facebook, to open source? Let's take a look at the major strategic motives behind the enterprise's contribution to open source projects.

1. Establishing standards

NASA and Rackspace launched their own cloud computing platform on the basis of the Apache 2.0 license agreement in 2010. Since then, the OpenStack project has become an industry standard for open cloud computing. Rackspace is no doubt a nice ride, as they outperform rivals, make their products open to open-source standards, and nurture a passionate community around their code.

Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier said: "We believe that OpenStack will quickly become the open source standard for cloud computing, when we launch the OpenStack cloud, we are already the largest OpenStack cloud." This creates a natural opportunity: to help us sell OpenStack cloud services. ”

2. Attract and retain top talent

Quite clearly, finding high-quality developers in the recruiting market is much more likely than finding unicorns in the streets. Many companies use the Open-source strategy to get top-notch developers from the OSS community. In fact, over the past two years, the Future of the Open Source Survey survey showed that the most important way for companies to attract and retain developers ' elites is to maintain a special relationship with the open source community.

On the other hand, fewer companies in open source have a much greater chance of losing talent. A recent report by the register shows that Amazon is suffering from this dilemma.

The company is described as a "black hole" because the use, improvement, and repair of open source software are all in the dark, and few of today's most talented technicians want to work in a company that isolates them from a wide range of technology communities.

In general, open source contributions can help company developers do these things:

Access to social recognition and open source "credibility."

Further develop and improve their technical skills.

Raise their morale and get more pride in their work.

Maintain strong links with a wide range of communities.

3. Create better Code

Contribution to open source, you can greatly improve the quality of the code in several ways below.

Developers write code for the public, and generally do not need to use many shortcuts. They are often proud of their contribution to the community, which motivates them to write the code better.

The communities around you can early identify possible problems, and they are testers of free usability and security testing.

The community can identify the next requirement for project capabilities and add more quality features that may not have been considered before.

The advantage of writing code for open source projects is that there is no easy "buck" phenomenon: different teams in the same organization do not know what other teams write code for.

4. Expand the company's technical team

When you have a strong technology community around your project, you should cherish the presence of this community, and they can basically be a think-tank for your development team. Once the project is open to the community, you are entering a global pool of elite developers who are cultivating themselves and contributing to your own code around your technology. This can help you reduce the cost of training. In addition, developers can get better on-the-job training at your company. The documentation and support that the community can provide can further help the company's employees develop.

5. Cost reduction

In addition to free Open-source software, improved code quality helps reduce overall costs. The Computer Weekly report summarizes the advantages of Facebook's Open Compute project.

Facebook has reduced costs by 24% and increased energy efficiency by 38%, as it began using open source hardware in its data centers, open compute, a project launched by a small group of Facebook engineers in April 2011.

6. Increase platform Adoption rate

By the end of 2008, Apple had become an unparalleled gorilla in the field of smartphone gaming, with no rivals in its sights. However, in the 4-year span, Google could be said to be the world's largest smartphone platform because it uses Android's Open-source features. Big players like Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG are also quick to stop on the platform. Google is expanding and controlling the smartphone market by keeping Android open.

7. A cash cow that affects your opponents

IBM and Microsoft have historically been a pair of old enemies. Microsoft initially designed DOS for IBM PCs, and for IBM PCs. They also collaborated on powering in the early the 1980s, and IBM lost its position in the PC and OS gaming fields until Microsoft developed too much. However, a decade ago IBM backed Linux back into the gaming industry, and IBM strongly supported driving Linux servers (which undoubtedly affected the sales of Windows servers). therefore。 Companies can strategically use open source to hit rivals hard.

8. Set up the product supporting service

Companies like Red Hat, Oracle and IBM make money primarily by building services around open source components. Over the past decade, we have witnessed a huge shift from software to services, and some influential technology giants are no longer limited to software companies. This trend is bound to accelerate through the next 10 years. Open source is more meaningful when you get high profits by selling the relevant services for the Open-source components you create.

Written in the last

The benefits of contributing to open source projects are much greater than the reputation you gain in the open source community. For-profit organizations can strategically use open source contributions to develop industry standards, hire top talent, and identify problems in ongoing projects as early as possible.

Original link: http://code.csdn.net/news/2820015