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Development on open source

Open technologies remove two risks at once: fees that grow with headcount, and dependence on a vendor deciding to stop developing the product. In exchange they demand competence - from the contractor and from whoever will run the system afterwards.

No royalties
you pay for the work
Not shut down
there is no single owner
Sources
entirely yours
Community
updates and additions

What the work includes

Open does not mean free: part of what you save on licences goes into the demands of support.

Discuss the scope

Choice

We look at how proven the technology is, whether the community around it is alive, and how easy it is to hire for it.

Development

We build on the chosen technology, using ready components where they genuinely fit.

Infrastructure

Deployment, environments, automated builds and release rollout.

Vulnerabilities

We track holes in the libraries we use: in open projects they go public immediately.

Documentation

We document the structure and the decisions taken so that another contractor can pick the project up.

Updates

A rule for raising the versions of the platform itself and of the packages it uses. Without it the system decays within twelve months.

How it goes

In development time there is practically no difference from closed platforms. The saving shows up as the absence of per-user fees.

01

Estimate

We take the task apart and pick a technology. Sometimes an open equivalent of the required quality simply does not exist.

02

Trial

We check on a small fragment that the technology really covers the requirements.

03

Development

We build on components that are proven and maintained.

04

Handover

We hand over the code, a description of the structure and notes on installing and updating.

A library maintained by one person eventually stops being updated. The vulnerabilities found in it stay there for good, and swapping it out inside a running project is rarely simple. When choosing components we look not only at features but at who develops them and how often.

Questions and answers

On licences without question, especially as user numbers grow: closed platforms count money by exactly that. On development and support the difference is small. What you should count is total spend over three to five years.

Any developer who knows the technology, and that is the whole point of the choice. We hand over the sources and the documentation, the technology is public, and specialists are on the market. A closed solution from one contractor gives no such freedom.

Many people study open code, but the vulnerabilities found in it also become common knowledge instantly. Update discipline decides everything: an abandoned open project is more dangerous than a maintained closed one.

Let us discuss an open platform

Describe the task and what does not suit you about the current licences. We will pick a technology and point out where an open solution is weaker.