| Enterprise IT gets open source playbook for Linux |
Jun. 22, 2004
Targeting senior enterprise IT staff exploring the benefits of open source software (OSS), Flashline has released a free guide to help facilitate corporate migration to Linux. Flashline's Pattern Book for Open Source in the Enterprise is intended to help IT craft a business and technology case for corporate use of OSS software based on factors of quality, reliability, and cost savings.
Released mid-May, The Flashline Pattern Book provides detailed plans to help organizations adopt open source in the enterprise. Sample documents on the Flashline wiki include templates for staffing, budgets, business case studies, and sample presentations.
Cleveland, Ohio-based Flashline offers a software asset management solution for the enterprise, and based the book on best practices they developed while incorporating Open Source Software into Fortune 500 organizations and federal agencies. Some highlights include effective governance strategies and implementation procedures.
Flashline's FlashPack for Open Source is a focused solution to accelerate the adoption and management of open source software assets throughout the enterprise.
Open Source Playbook available as community project
Flashline created an open source project around the Pattern Book, licensing it under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. Under this license, it is free to copy and distribute the pattern book, and to make derivative works with attribution among the conditions.
The book has 20 templates for project plans, presentations, and worksheets addressing key issues, requirements, and milestones, including the business case, a project plan, implementation strategy, staffing, and legal concerns. The project suggests designating a staffer to serve as a liaison between the company and the open source community, in a role the project calls a "steward."
Mark Driver, vice president of Gartner, said in a statement from Flashline announcing the project, "If organizations do not adopt procedures and standards supporting the acquisition and ongoing management of open source software, their initiatives will fail. Incorporating open source into a software asset management strategy is the only way companies will quickly realize the cost savings, collaborative, and quality benefits of open source."
Read the Pattern Book for Open Source in the Enterprise at Flashline's project site.
(Click here for further information)
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