SMBs expected to be the key contributors in Open Source growth 

Dr. Devasia Kurian, CEO, *astTECS

Open Source solutions are at the forefront of successful enterprise class deployment and gaining growth & popularity at a tremendous pace. As increased no. of verticals, mainly the SMBs are expected to be key contributors to the rapidly emerging scenario, organizations are eventually moving away from proprietary solutions to Open Source based functionalities, which allow them to afford and deploy greater processes and manage their operations more efficiently & effectively.

Free from vendor lock-in, Open Source deployment delivers greater flexibility and advantages to enterprise customers. Also, they are highly cost effective as compared to the proprietary alternatives at the same time deliver host of customised features. As standardization efforts started to produce results the increased adoption of Open Source and availability of open standards is helping drive greater collaboration and faster innovation.

Today, Open Source support programmes are available and Open Source solution providers are offering world-class service and support to their customers.

Open Source is an important aspect of Government’s Digital India programme and the framework for adoption of Open Source software in e-Governance systems is in place. The Govt has announced a policy on adoption of Open Source software, which makes it mandatory for all software applications and services of the Government be built using Open Source software, so that projects under Digital India ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability at affordable costs.

Open Source is a prominent choice of Govt. to truly leverage the digital transformation initiatives.The Govt.requires scalable, innovative and high-quality eGov applications to be developed in a collaborative manner by encouraging synergy between departments and private organizations.

Apart from cost efficiency, Open Source solutions boast full range of features, capabilities and functionality to support a variety of needs. The key aspects are; agility, freedom to customize, rapid deployment, scalability, support and security.

The Government’s policy on adoption of Open Source software is encouraging the formal adoption and use of Open Source Software (OSS) in government organisations and enterprises.To ensure rapid and effective adoption of OSS, the entire ecosystem consisting of OSS community, industry and academia together have created a huge market and amazing opportunities.

There is a strong ecosystem in place and the adoption of Open Source is consistently increasing. Yes, more training and awareness is required for Open Source to spread and organisations are making an effort in this direction. With Open Source becoming prevalent, there is an increase in demand for skilled professionals. At *astTECS through *astTECS academy, we offer comprehensive training programme on Asterisk solution to Asterisk user, customers and organizations in India and many countries across the globe.