Do open platforms bring benefits?
Of course, they are useful. However, can open platforms beat proprietary platforms?
In fact, It is thought that open platforms are considered as an enigma in the business world. We have a question why a business stakeholder cares about what technology is used as long as it solves a business problem and effective. This seems like it wouldn't matter but there are a lot of hidden factors that play here. Open platforms can beat proprietary platforms for the following reasons.
Flexibility:
Proprietary platforms traditionally do not allow users to extend and integrate with other platforms easily while open platforms do. In fact, proprietary platforms have been around since computing appeared. Thus, a lot of organizations have no experience or are locked in with open platforms.
Cost:
As you are aware open platforms are free while implementing and/or migrating to open platforms can cost more expensively than proprietary platforms. But typically costs involved with implementing open platforms are associated only with the short term. Costs including vendor lock-in, maintenance and services fees which can equate to hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars annually are eliminated when open platforms are using in the long term.
Business Alignment:
Business alignment is critical to the future of IT. In fact, a specific need is solved by most open platform methodologies while business needs are solved by a lot of proprietary platforms. They often require many months to years to implement because they are big and bulky. While open platforms have short implementation cycles, which provides business agility and immediate return on investment to the business.
Source: chicagonow
