Open source software's (OSS) uptake by business has exceeded previous expectations by analysts and studies indicate further growth in coming years

The professional model combines traditional OSS projects run by a community of software enthusiasts with a professional company. Participants benefit from each and the synergy provides for additional advantages

The 'project' adds strong supportive, critical communities and world wide adoption of the software, while the company backs the project with full-time engineering staff, formal support and service level agreements sponsored by fee-paying customers

Customers benefit from the increased quality of the software, quality of design, and increased traction enabled by the product's community. The model is powerful because the customers, partners, engineers, and open source communities are all self-motivated to behave in ways that are beneficial to themselves and, as a side effect, to all

Open source TCO

If any of our references has to be mentioned in context, it must be David Wheeler's comprehensive research on open source issues. A few extracts from the Total Cost of Ownership chapter:

On initial licensing costs, in $US:

• 40% to 54% for application servers
• 50% on database servers
• 19% to 36% on the desktop

Savings

Lower hardware requirement

Open Source software generally run on lower specification hardware than is required by bloated proprietary systems, delaying hardware upgrades, specifically on the desktop, and saving costs

Lower systems administration costs

The internet was born on open source and the robust, secure and industry proven servers proved to lower support cost in study after study

No annual license fees

On open source server and desktops, labs do not have to pay any operating system, database, mail, fax server, or office application license fees
OS service providers charge for services rendered only, the bulk of which will be levied during LIMS implementation projects, followed by support contracts thereafter

Unlimited users

No license per seat

Intangible OSS advantages

Best of Breed

By integrating requirements from a wide spectrum of lab disciplines voluntarily put forward and discussed in the community, superior designs are arrived at. These are evaluated and tested by many more 'eyes' than would've been with proprietary software, ensuring robust efficient installations

No vendor lock in. No fixed upgrade cycle

Master your own destiny and switch vendors when yours don't perform or hand over support and development functions to in-house IT departments while maintaining the backing and resources available from the LIMS' community

Upgrade the LIMS only when you need to. With functionality you actually need

Customisation

Spend software budgets on system enhancements. All the above savings can be put to much better use enhancing your LIMS and maintaining your competitive edge. Labs have full control over their LIMS development