Open source software (OSS) has transformed the technology landscape by enabling collaboration, transparency, and rapid innovation. By making source code publicly available, open source projects empower organizations and individuals to inspect, modify, and contribute to software that underpins critical infrastructure and applications.

Benefits of Open Source Software​

• Transparency & Trust: Open codebases allow anyone to audit for security, privacy, and quality, fostering trust in the software.
• Community-Driven Innovation: OSS projects benefit from diverse global contributors, accelerating feature development and bug fixes.
• Cost Efficiency: Open source solutions often reduce licensing costs and vendor lock-in, providing flexibility and long-term savings.
• Customizability: Organizations can tailor open source software to their unique requirements, ensuring a better fit for their needs.
• Interoperability: Open standards and APIs in OSS promote integration and compatibility across platforms.

Disadvantages and Considerations​

While open source offers many advantages, it is important to recognize potential challenges:

• Support & Maintenance: Community support may not match the reliability or responsiveness of commercial vendors.
• Security Risks: Public codebases can be scrutinized for vulnerabilities, and patching may depend on community responsiveness.
• Complexity: Deploying and managing OSS at scale can require significant expertise and operational investment.
• Fragmentation: Multiple forks and versions can complicate decision-making and long-term maintenance.

We can help you mitigate these issues in a variety of manners to produce a more secure and consistent environment.

Our Commitment to Open Source​

In addition to the software we produce being offered under open source licensing, we are active contributors to a number of leading open source projects, including:

• Keycloak: Identity and access management.
• OHDSI: Tools and standards for health data analytics.
• Project Jupyter: Interactive computing and data science environments.

Our team regularly submits code, documentation, and participates in community discussions to help these projects evolve and remain robust.

Reducing Costs using Open Source​

A significant inefficiency in the commercial software industry is the constant reinvention of the wheel. Organisations are repeatedly solving problems that have already been addressed elsewhere, simply because code is not shared. This leads to wasted time, increased costs, and slower innovation.

By leveraging open source software, libraries and tools, we can dramatically reduce these inefficiencies. Instead of building every component from scratch, we reuse robust, community-vetted solutions for common problems. This approach allows us to deliver projects faster and at a lower cost, passing those savings directly to our customers.

At the same time, we recognize that every organization has unique needs and intellectual property (IP). We architect solutions so that the majority of the codebase leverages open source components and contributes into our open-source libraries, while partitioning off and protecting the key elements that represent your unique value and competitive advantage. This ensures you benefit from the cost savings and reliability of open source, while retaining full control and confidentiality over what is truly proprietary to your business.

Managed Open Source: The Best of Both Worlds​

While we strongly prefer solutions that leverage open source technologies, we recognize the value of managed service offerings available on major cloud platforms. Managed open source services combine the flexibility and innovation of OSS with the security, scalability, and operational simplicity of cloud-native solutions. This approach allows organizations to:

• Reduce Operational Overhead: Cloud providers handle updates, scaling, and security patches.
• Enhance Security: Managed services often include advanced monitoring and compliance features.
• Accelerate Adoption: Teams can focus on building value rather than managing infrastructure.

By combining open source technologies with managed service offerings, we deliver solutions that are both innovative and reliable—empowering our clients to harness the full potential of open source, safely and efficiently.

Looking for help with open source technologies or managed solutions? Contact us to discuss how we can support your organization.