Ian’s Blog on Open Source Marketing

In July 2007 we launched the Open Source Barometer - a survey using opt-in data provided by 10,000 members of the Alfresco Community with the aim of providing a global survey of trends on the use of open source software in the enterprise. Users were asked about their preferences in operating systems, application servers, databases, browsers and portals to capture the latest information on how companies today evaluate and deploy open source and legacy proprietary software stacks in the enterprise.

This is the largest open source enterprise stack survey and is used by Alfresco to prioritize platform and stack combinations for the larger community. The Barometer is also designed to ask questions such as:

• How and where is open source used in the G2000 Enterprise stack
• Is it a pure open source stack or a hybrid
• Are things different in different parts of the stack
• Are things different in different parts of the world
• Is there a leading player in each part of the stack
• What are trends over time

If those were the questions, one answer that clearly came back was - MySQL is the clear leader in an Alfresco environment being chosen 61% of the time.

The Open Source Barometer is published twice a year. The next one will be announced at JBoss World in Orlando, February 13th, 2008, where I am presenting.

I have been working on the next version today. The sample size is now up to over 35,000. As well as the sample increasing significantly we have also expanded the Open Source Barometer to include analysis on preferred virtual machines, office environments, how users are planning to evaluate alfresco (hosted, corporate server or laptop) and type of content management. The new barometer has some very interesting results.

One statistic that came out was “The Sun is still shining on MySQL”.

As the previous Open Source Barometer showed, in open source at each level of the stack there is a clear leader. If you say open source linux, database, app server, enterprise content management, crm most people will be pushed to come back with more than one name. For open source database that name is MySQL.

In my previous posts I have discussed “The Blue Ocean Strategy” in “Make Markets not War - A Simple Marketing Model for Enterprise Open Source”. To be successful you need to focus on what Kim and Maubrogne call a “Blue Ocean” or “Non-Customer.” Alfresco has been very successful with the 80% of Knowledge Workers who don’t use ECM and collaborate with a shared drive and email - The places ECM vendors don’t go (and actually aren’t very good at). MySQL has not focused on replacing Oracle but powered the largest Web 2.0 sites in the world.

MySQL is a great company managed by great people and the Sun is still shining on their Blue Ocean. The acquisition by Sun makes sense - Sun powered the first generation of websites. MySQL powers the next generation of Web 2.0 sites. Sun has already proven their alliance and cooperation with open source and this move further validates the value of open source as a way to drive innovation and build companies and value in a better and more efficient way.

The Open Source Barometer will be announced at JBoss World on February 13th, and also posted on www.opensourcebarometer.org , where details on the last barometer can also be found.

A previous blog entry “The Alfresco Open Source Barometer – Community Counts” announced the Alfresco Open Source Barometer. This allows Alfresco to prioritize the platforms and combinations of platforms, in the modern stack, that Alfresco runs on to best serve the community.

The geographic distribution of community members responding to the survey in this time period is as follows:

The countries in order of size of membership are:

1. US
2. France
3. Spain
4. Germany
5. Italy
6. United Kingdom

Interestingly when you also analyze visitors to our website it is as follows:

1. US
2. France
3. Germany
4. United Kingdom
5. Spain
6. Italy

This is an interesting distribution as traditionally enterprise software gains momentum in the U.S., crosses the Atlantic to form a beachhead in the U.K. and then moves on to Germany and France. The survey found that the U.S. is leading open source adoption globally. We believe the Global 2000 is seeking innovation and better value for their technology investments whereas in Europe open source adoption is often driven by governments seeking better value for their citizens. The research also showed that the U.K. lags behind in the adoption of open source suggesting less government emphasis compared with other European countries such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

A detailed report can be accessed at: http://Opensourcebarometer.org

The Community can be accessed at: http://www.alfresco.com/community/register/?source=community

Alfresco launched the Alfresco Content Community earlier this year to offer easy access to documentation, answers to frequently asked questions, sample applications, white papers, recordings of webinars, training material and presentations from community meetings. Open source communities are about two way conversations and when users join they are asked details on their preference for operating system, application server, portal and database. Newsletter surveys have also drilled down on user’s preferences and how they differ between evaluation and deployment. This information allows Alfresco to prioritize the platforms and combinations of platforms, in the modern stack, that Alfresco runs on.

It also allows Alfresco to perform scalability stress testing and benchmarks on key stack blueprints. This in turn benefits the community at large.

The information also allows us to look for answers to questions such as:

• How and where is open source growing?
• Is this growth different in different parts of the stack?
• Is there a clear leader in each element of the stack?
• Is usage varying between evaluation to deployment?
• Are there differences by geography? What are the trends over time?

Among the highlights revealed by the Open Source Barometer were:

Operating systems: Surprisingly, users evaluated Alfresco as much on Windows as they did on different flavors of Linux, but they strongly preferred to deploy production systems on Linux. Windows plays an increasingly important role in testing and evaluation because it is the operating system on most desktops.

Application servers: Users strongly preferred open source Tomcat or JBoss over the leading proprietary offerings from Sun, IBM and BEA, even in production environments.

Databases: Overwhelmingly, users test and deploy on MySQL with PostgreSQL a surprisingly close second for both evaluations and production deployment. Oracle was the most popular proprietary choice among the proprietary databases.

Browsers and portals: To access the Alfresco ECM repository, users preferred browsers over portals. And Firefox was the most popular choice among different browsers. When users selected a portal preference, 80 percent chose Liferay or JBoss Portal.

Geography: The US is leading the open source charge following by countries such as France, Spain and Germany where Government adoption is a catalyst for change.

A detailed report can be accessed at: http://Opensourcebarometer.org

The Community can be accessed at: http://www.alfresco.com/community/register/?source=community

The “Open Source Barometer” will be published twice a year and this blog will provide more regular updates on trends. So when you join the Alfresco Content Community what you say counts