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.