Control Issues: Import of Open Source Governance Advances

by Brian J. Dooley

Open source software (OSS) has entered the enterprise through a variety of different avenues over the past several years. It has become extremely important within the infrastructure area revolving around the Linux operating system platform, where it has gained support from such leading software vendors as IBM and Novell. Support from major vendors has added to the credibility of open source, and its use is broadening in the enterprise. Where once open source was mainly focused on the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl) components, applications of numerous types are beginning to appear. For example, there has been movement toward creating open source platforms for business intelligence (BI), enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions such as Compiere, training platforms such as Moodle, and so on.