A Cost Saving Model

The
debate about open source versus proprietary software is a never-ending affair.
Both of them have their merits and demerits. To begin with, I would like
to mention that one would prefer to choose the most appropriate solution
according to business need, not on an open source versus proprietary basis.
May be for a government school or other such public institution, going
for a open source software will be a better idea as compared to an organization.
Why would a government school pay for costly license fees for say Microsoft
Office when the same can be had for free as open office? However, an
organization will have different view on the same issue.

There are some critical
factors that substantially increase the initial cost of implementing open source
code in an organization. Firstly, one needs to spend and acquire lots and lots
of resources and money in training our people as open source software are not
better documented as compare to proprietary software.

Akhil Pandey head of department-IT, NDPL

Secondly, a common
problem faced is the lack of a reliable source of assistance when you encounter
problems in an open source product. And the third, most of the existing
peripheral, hardware and software have been tested for proprietary software
compatibility. Similar is not true with open source software, and lot of effort
needs to be done to install and configure these components. This increases risk
of running custom applications in an untried environment to an unacceptable
level.

Total cost of ownership
covers all the costs associated with use of computer hardware and software
including the administrative cost, license costs, deployment and configuration,
hardware and software updates, training and development, maintenance, technical
support, and any other costs associated with acquiring, deploying, operating,
maintaining and upgrading computer systems in an organization.

On basis of above
mentioned parameter, following are the cost that are generally incurred on:

Proprietary
Software

• Training
  cost

• Internal
  support cost

• Process
  for determining which software to purchase

• License
  purchase and upgrade cost

• License
  management cost

• Virus
  attack prevention

Open
Source Software

• Training
  cost

• Internal
  support cost

• Process
  for determining which software to purchase

The upfront licensing
costs of proprietary software would appear to make open source software
which is essentially free, the clear winner in terms of cost of
ownership. However, in practice, the advantage may not be so clear-cut.
Proprietary systems with their enterprise and standard environment, familiar and
consistent-looking GUI interface will result in a lower total ownership cost.

Proprietary software
definitely has an upper hand over open source software in maintenance and
upgrade. In current scenario, availability of skilled manpower for open source
code is almost negligible as compared to manpower for proprietary software,
which is available in plenty. Also, proprietary software is easy to install.

As told to Shipra Arora


shipraa@cybermedia.co.in

These are my personal views (should not be taken as NDPL's) on proprietary and
open source software.