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Cloud computing innovation for Government – is the public sector moving with the changes?

April 23, 2013 By
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Our last blog looked at the changes we have seen from our first ever Open Gov Summit in 2012 to how things have evolved over the past year to draw on at this year’s Open Gov.  I wanted to talk about how we see these changes developing, their impact on government IT and how government IT departments can stay ahead.

‘Cloud Computing Innovation for Government’

Our second event builds from last year’s debate on open source and open standards. The UK government adopted an open standards policy last November following a detailed consultation led by the Cabinet Office. In this year’s event we will examine how the open source model has driven a wave of Cloud computing innovation that government organisations can tap into to deliver major cost savings and avoid the political and fiscal dangers of vendor lock-in.

Aingaran Pillai, CEO and Founder of Zaizi said ‘With the UK government having formally adopted open standards last November, 2012 was a watershed year. In this year’s event, we will demonstrate how government organisations like Bristol City Council are really starting to reap the benefits from open standards based technology and the Cloud solutions they enable.”

‘Is Public Sector really moving with the changes?’

In a recent article we look at if people are really moving with the changes. With the G-Cloud plan underway, how we move in the right direction towards adoption of cloud services is more prominent than ever.

UK government may miss cloud computing targets.  The government may miss its cloud computing targets because of a lack of enthusiasm from public sector IT staff, a report has found.

‘The G-Cloud plan’

The G-Cloud plan calls for 50% of all new government IT spending to move to cloud computing services by 2015 and a government “app store” called CloudStore was launched in February to offer such services to the public sector. This plan aims to reduce government IT costs by £200m per year.

G-Cloud was first announced as part of the government’s ICT strategy in March 2011. It echoes the US Government’s Federal Cloud Computing Strategy which requires US agencies to evaluate cloud computing options before making any new investments.

CloudStore is intended to make it cheaper and easier for public sector organisations to choose and buy “off the shelf” IT services such as email, word processing, enterprise resource planning and electronic records management that meet government standards.

It is also intended to prevent government departments getting locked into lengthy and expensive IT contracts.

But 59% of the IT staff surveyed for the report said they were “undecided” on whether to use CloudStore to buy cloud services.

Source | BBC Business news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18103750

‘Things need to change’

If a department is locked in to a long term contract then that’s a problem,” said Andy Tait, VMware’s head of public sector strategy and former deputy G-Cloud director.

Zafar Chaudry, chief information officer at Liverpool Women’s and Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trusts, believes that cloud services can provide a very effective way for public sector organisations to cut costs.  He states ‘The public sector has some very old ways that need changing, We are in a short term contract, and in the future I will certainly be looking at the CloudStore to try and reduce costs further,” he said. He has replaced four data centres operated by the trusts with cloud services, and said this had resulted in costs savings of 10%.

In a statement the Cabinet Office said G-Cloud was a new initiative and its early work on the project had been geared towards making it sustainable in a way that would make it quicker and easier to buy services.  Despite CloudStore only being launched early in the year several public sector organisations had already bought services through it, said the statement.

“Given this strong early interest we are confident that we can reach our long-term target of 50% of new public IT spending coming through G-Cloud by 2015,” it added.

Source | BBC Business news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18103750

‘How can you make this change?’

At the Open Gov Summit 2013 you will learn:

How Government CTOs can best steer their selection of technology and services to maximise value through competitive tension, choice and flexibility.
How to enable government organisations to pick the best of breed solution for the right price
How Government can take advantages of these changes.
How local councils like Bristol City Council are utilising open source and open standards based cloud solutions
How you can learn their plans to share the solutions with other government authorities under open source license

Join us at this exciting event to network with national and local government, and engage in exciting discussion in how you can adopt these changes.

Filed Under: Open Data, Open Government, Open Source Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Second Open Gov Summit looks at how open source & open standards are driving the Cloud Revolution

April 5, 2013 By
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G Cloud - Using Open Source & Open Standards

 

Moving Ahead

Last year saw the first Open Gov Summit hosted by Zaizi. The London headquartered open source consultancy hosted the fully-booked Summit which attracted an eclectic audience that included open source pundits, public sector IT leaders, leads of open source projects, open source software vendors, consultants and journalists.

‘What we found last year’

3 Key themes emerged from the event

  1. ‘Green shoots’ are appearing – Although the UK lags behind the US, European and BRIC countries in adopting open source in the public sector, ‘green shoots’ are starting to appear as more local councils like Bristol City Council and central government departments like the Cabinet Office, the Met Office and the Home Office champion its use through projects designed to inform and engage citizens.
  2. Obstacles to adoption remain – A risk averse public sector culture combined with procurement red tape still prevents many open source providers, which have limited resources, from competing on a level playing field. Proprietary mega-vendors continue to lobby government relentlessly against moving to open source technology and perpetuate myths that technology is not secure or reliable. Also, many felt that UK schools and universities needed to adapt their IT curricula so that more young people develop open source skills.
  3. Government will ultimately do the right thing – Despite the obstacles, most speakers and delegates agreed that the tide is turning and in due course, there will be so many high-profile case studies of open source being used in mission-critical public and private sector scenarios around the world that the UK not want to be exposed for failing to move with the times and take advantage of the huge potential savings to the taxpayer. The open source myths are being debunked as more private sector companies from Amazon to Google to the New York Stock Exchange run their mission-critical systems on open source software.

As we re-visit these themes we will look at how things have progressed over the last year and look into the wider issues CTOs now have to address in the push towards using open source and open standards. Tariq Rashid, IT Reform, Cabinet Office, states ‘open source and open standards technology is shifting from innovation to commodity’. We will look at what is driving this and how we are going to address these new developments at this year’s Open Gov Summit 2013 on the 25th of April.

‘The Way forward for Government’

Angela Smith, Minister of State for the Cabinet Office explains how the Government considers that in order to deliver its key objectives a programme of positive action is now needed to ensure that there is an effective ‘level playing field’ between open source and proprietary software and to realise the potential contribution open source software can make to wider aims of re­use and open standards. This programme needs to consist both of a more detailed statement of policies and of practical actions by government and its suppliers.

Source – Open Source, Open Standards and Re­Use: Government Action Plan.

The key objectives addressed by Angela will be to:

  1. Ensure that the Government adopts open standards and uses these to communicate with the citizens and businesses that have adopted open source solutions.
  2. Ensure that proper consideration of open source solutions is provided in procurement activity, and where they deliver best value for money (taking into account other advantages, such as reuse and flexibility) are selected for Government business solutions.
  3. Strengthen the skills, experience and capabilities within Government and in its suppliers to use open source to greatest advantage.
  4. Embed an ‘open source’ culture of sharing, re­use and collaborative development across Government and its suppliers, building on the re­use policies and processes already agreed within the CIO Council, and in doing so seek to stimulate innovation, reduce cost and risk, and improve speed to market.
  5. Ensure that there are no procedural barriers to the adoption of open source products within government, paying particular regard to the different business models and supply chain relationships involved.
  6. Ensure that systems integrators and proprietary software suppliers demonstrate the same flexibility and ability to re­use their solutions and products as is inherent in open source.

Engagement with SMEs

The role of small firms and of entrepreneurship is recognised as key to government’s economic policy and technology procurement.

StartUp Britain is a groundbreaking response from the private sector to the Government’s call for an ‘enterprise-led’ recovery. It will deliver the very best in support and advice for startup companies, led by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.

StartUp Britain will be a champion for the UK’s 270,000 businesses that start up every year aiming to help drive growth by accelerating, inspiring and celebrating Britain’s start-up talent.

It is fully supported by Prime Minister David Cameron and HM Government and has so far gathered the backing of significant international brands including Barclays, BlackBerry, Experian, Intel, Microsoft, McKinsey & Co. and Virgin Media.

A new online tool enabling small businesses to pitch their ideas on how they could do the business of government more cheaply or more efficiently. The best pitches will be handpicked by a community of civil servants and will receive intensive mentoring from several of Britain’s best entrepreneurs.

Source – Number 10 Downing Street | Official site for British Prime Ministers Office

‘Discover more at Open Gov Summit 2013’

With these new developments we are excited to be announcing that Tariq will be presenting and giving a rare insight into the changes occurring in IT as it is becoming increasingly commoditised and open. Tariq will provide insight into how Government CTOs can best steer their selection of technology and services to maximise value through competitive tension, choice and flexibility. It is about enabling government organisations to pick the best of breed solution for the right price and Tariq will provide insight into how Government can take advantage of these changes.

Gavin Beckett, Chief Enterprise Architect from Bristol City Council will also be sharing his story, drawing on their experiences in their innovative approach to government procurement process & how they are utilising open standards based cloud solutions.

We wrote about Bristol City Council’s open source success story last year. 

For a significant number of Government Departments, cloud computing is starting to be seen as a key influencer to transforming current and future services in the way in which they organise and procure their ICT systems. Join us to discuss how open source and open standards technology is driving the cloud revolution and how government organisations can benefit from it through open discussion, practical insight and user experiences.

Given all the information we have today, it is imperative that we take the next steps into discussing how we can really make these changes. You can do this today by registering for the Open Gov Summit that will be happening at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors on the 25th of April.

Filed Under: Open Data, Open Government, Open Source Tagged With: , , , , , ,

First Open Gov Summit hosted by Zaizi challenges UK public sector to expand its adoption of open source

May 31, 2012 By
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Tariq Rashid, Lead Architect at the Home Office with Aingaran Pillai, Zaizi CEO, talking about Open Source in Government at the Open Gov Summit 2012 hosted by Zaizi

London – 31 May 2012 – The first Open Gov Summit took place yesterday May 30th in Central Hall Westminster, London.  London-based open source consultancy Zaizi hosted the fully-booked Summit, which attracted an eclectic audience that included open source pundits, public sector IT leaders of open source projects, open source software suppliers, consultants and journalists. The delegates came together to take part in an impassioned, critical debate, which examined how transitioning from proprietary to open source software has the potential to transform the UK’s public sector, making it much more efficient and less expensive, while dramatically improving its services.  For those unable to make the conference, all content has been posted here http://lanyrd.com/2012/opengovsummit/.

Government and institutional speakers included among others: Mark O’Neill, Head of Service Delivery at the Government Digital Service, Tariq Rashid, Lead Architect at the UK Home Office, Graham Mallin, Head of Enterprise Architecture at the Met Office, Graham Taylor CEO and Co-Founder of OpenForum Europe and Gerry Gavigan, Chair of the Open Source Consortium.  Glyn Moody, author of  “Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution” (2001), hosted a QA session and there were also panel discussions and ‘Open Mic’ sessions about the opportunities, challenges and myths surrounding the use of open source in the public sector.

Throughout the day, three main themes emerged:

  • ‘Green shoots’ are appearing - Although the UK lags behind the US, European and BRIC countries in adopting open source in the public sector, ‘green shoots’ are starting to appear as more local councils like Bristol City Council and central government departments like the Cabinet Office, the Met Office and the Home Office champion its use through projects designed to inform and engage citizens.
  • Obstacles to adoption remain - A risk averse public sector culture combined with procurement red tape still prevents many open source providers, which have limited resources, from competing on a level playing field.  Proprietary mega-vendors continue to lobby government relentlessly against moving to open source technology and perpetuate myths that technology is not secure or reliable.  Also, many felt that UK schools and universities needed to adapt their IT curricula so that more young people develop open source skills.
  • Government will ultimately do the right thing - Despite the obstacles, most speakers and delegates agreed that the tide is turning and in due course, there will be so many high-profile case studies of open source being used in mission-critical public and private sector scenarios around the world that the UK not want to be exposed for failing to move with the times and take advantage of the huge potential savings to the taxpayer.  The open source myths are being debunked as more private sector companies from Amazon to Google to the New York Stock Exchange run their mission-critical systems on open source software.


Following yesterday’s success, Zaizi, which hosted the event in partnership with its sponsors Alfresco, Red Hat, eXo Platform and Ephesoft has confirmed that it will run Open Gov Summit again in 2013.  To register your interest in sponsoring or attending next year’s event, please contact Zaizi.

Aingaran Pillai, CEO of Zaizi and organizer commented: “In this first event we placed ourselves at the heart of what we hope will be an conversation with government, industry and development communities about how to practically apply open source in the UK’s public sector. This was a personal highlight for me because I have dedicated most of my career working to implement and promote the benefits of open source software especially in government.”

About Zaizi

Zaizi is an experienced information and technology consulting firm specialising in enterprise content management (ECM) and document capture solutions. Through strategic partnerships with eXo, Alfresco and Ephesoft, Zaizi delivers a complete range of enterprise content solutions, including document and web content management systems, scanning solutions, portals, and corporate intranets and extranets. Our technical expertise and innovative approach leverages rich internet applications, social networking platforms and cloud infrastructure to deliver scalable, on-demand solutions.

Media contact
Sarah Lafferty
07917 222 144
slafferty@roundearthconsulting.com

Filed Under: Open Government, Open Source, Open Source Software, open standards Tagged With: , , , , ,

Democratizing Softwares: Bristol City Council’s Open Source Success Story

April 24, 2012 By
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Last week I wrote about how “What Open Source & Open Standards means to Government and citizens” in response to the open standards consultation that is currently running until the end of April 2012.

This time I’m going to bring to you one of those rare but truly inspiring case studies for open source in government in this country.

Implementation of a council wide open source strategy

Bristol City Council

Bristol City Council

Did you know that Bristol City Council has implemented a council wide open source strategy? Its astounding to know that in the midst of all the open standards roundtables and the consultation running, there is one council that has already managed to take on Microsoft and win.

If I wasn’t working at Zaizi (Bristol CC is Zaizi’s customer), I wouldn’t have known about Bristol City Council‘s success in implementing open source and levelling the playing field for SMEs and open source. It is a great example of how we can get other councils and government agencies to get on the open source wagon.

An official statement by Bristol City Council Leader Barbara Janke said:

Bristol is leading the way on promoting open source solutions and supporting our strong creative media and digital sector. We held a very productive meeting with the Cabinet Office yesterday, and they were able to reassure us that there are no security or accreditation issues that should hold us back from pushing ahead with our open source agenda.

This is very good news and was warmly welcomed by the IT companies present. Our aim is to do all we can to see a higher proportion of money from our IT procurement ending up in the local economy and supporting the city’s innovative software companies.

We have now been given the green light by the Cabinet Office to push ahead with this open source agenda and they have promised to work closely with us on this issue over the next few months, and more widely in our efforts to support our thriving creative and digital sector as we develop the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

Learning by sharing

As I personally have only been working with Zaizi for only a few months now, I’ve been trying to get up to speed with how Bristol City Council has implemented a council wide open source strategy and how other local councils and government agencies can learn from them.

Why is open source important to us as citizens

For those still wondering why open source is important for us as citizens, just think of this scenario Dr. Mark Wright (Cllr in Bristol) has described and think about why open source would matter to you, or more importantly, think about how your tax is being spent! ;)

“Imagine a car manufacturer, who would be trying to sell you a car and when they sell you this car, they tell you, “Oh by the way, we’re not going to tell you what’s in the car. We’re not going to tell you what its made of. Or what components are in it. We’re not going to let you look under the bonet. We’re not really bothered to fix things. If you find that something goes wrong, we might try to fix your car but probably you’ll have to wait until we bring out a new car and then you’ll have to buy that car.

And if you car doesn’t do exactly what you thought, then that’s you’re fault really. Its not our fault. I think if a car manufacturer would do that to you, you would stick to fingers up to them and you’d go elsewhere and you’d either buy a bike or start catching the bus.

The sad truth about this analogy is, in the software world, this is normal. That’s the way it is. That’s the way its been for decades. And there is a real problem of liberty there. The software world is sort of a lockdown world, which is stifling the liberty of users in that area and to me open source is a key way out of that. Open source is a way back into what I would call ‘the real world’.  The way things are done back in the real world. You know if you buy something, you know how it works and to fiddle with it and change it, make it better, make it different.  Its entirely up to you. That’s the way things are in the real world and that’s how the software world should be.”

So if you live and breathe in the real world, surely you would understand why open source makes sense, especially in this economy. See the video below to hear Dr Mark Wright talk about Bristol’s journey.

Bristol CC’s journey – leading the open source path for all of us

To get a feel of what Bristol CC have had to go through to get to this point, check out these articles and the timeline of events. Bare in mind, some of what is being written does not come directly from Bristol CC officially.

September 2010

November 2010

June 2011

August 2011

September 2011

October 2011

So as you can see, as any road that leads to a rewarding outcome, it wasn’t easy nor without criticism and pessimism. But Bristol CC got there in the end. And I personally feel that they have earned a lot of respect for paving the way for the rest of us.

What open source Bristol CC were using and planning to use as of 26th July 2011

Thanks to the useful website WhatDoTheyKnow.com, we also now know have a copy of an FOI request that can tell us just how committed Bristol CC was to open source as of 26th July 2011.

The FOI asked the following questions: -

1. What is the current written council policy on the use of open source software?

2. What open source software packages are currently being used by Bristol City Council?

3. What are the council’s future plans for increasing the deployment and use of open source software?

And the answer given is below

Open Source Software “packages” in use by Bristol City Council include:

  1. Red Hat Linux
  2. CentOS Linux
  3. Apache web server
  4. Squid proxy
  5. MySQL
  6. PostgreSQL
  7. APLAWS WCM (being replaced by Drupal WCM)
  8. NetBeans IDE (likely to be replaced by Eclipse IDE)
  9. Nagios
  10. Firefox
  11. Chrome

OSS experts will understand that many of these products/distributions
contain a very large number of “packages”, as OSS products are usually
built from many other OSS elements.

Our future plans are to implement the OSS procurement policy in all
evaluation and selection processes. In concrete terms this includes:

a) EDRM & Team Collaboration – we are actively considering products from
Alfresco and Nuxeo

b) Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse – we will consider products
from Pentaho, Jaspersoft, and Talend

c) Identity & Access Management – we will consider options including
OpenAM, OpenIDM and OpenDJ

d) Online services – we will consider Liferay portal in conjunction with
Drupal

How did they do it?

Some of you who are keen to know more about how to implement open source where you work, you might be interested to see these documents: -

  1. Bristol City Council Business Case 
  2. Open Source Procurement Toolkit
Here’s some interesting snippets of the Business Case that you might want to consider in yours.
The Case for Change

the case for change, considering a range of issues related to three major goals of office software migration:

  • Cost reduction
  • Simplified and cheaper purchasing, licence and budget management
    • Easier data sharing within the Council and with external organisations
    • Easier support and deployment through managed software installation and upgrades
    • Improved productivity through targeted training and common knowledge
  • Improved functionality, such as better integration with business systems
  • Open standards, including file formats that enable open access to and re-use of data

Cost for change

  • You need to assess the cost for your organisation in the areas of:
      • Decision Making Processes
      • Project Management
      • Communications
      • Training – Technical and User
      • Deployment and System Testing
      • Desktop Computer Hardware Upgrades
      • Document Conversion and System Integration – including databases and macros
      • Implementation Support
      • Productivity Gains or Losses
      • Functionality Gains or LossesMigration costs are broadly similar for proprietary or Open Source office software.

Bristol is also offering Council officers the opportunity to visit Bristol, meet the implementation team, ask questions about the challenges faced and solutions we have developed, and hear from users who have been through the migration to StarOffice.

They are also working in collaboration with other Open Source Academy partners to encourage Local Government software vendors to improve their support for Open Standards and Open Source products, including the practical development of integration with StarOffice/OpenOffice.org

Dispelling the myths

For some of us, open source is something completely new and it can be daunting. Just like social media, we went from not knowing, to fearing it, to being fearless and giving it a go, then embracing it and pushing communication and citizen digital engagement boundaries to achieve wonderful things.

So let’s air out the myths and get down to the facts.

Open Source Myths

  • Open Source is less secure.
  • It is not possible to cost an Open Source Solution.
  • Open Source isn’t licensed
  • Open Source is just the latest fad

If you have ever thought of these reasons for not adopting Open Source, then think again. Because all those statements are FALSE!   Take a look here to find out why.

What we need government to say

“We need all public sector document must be exchanged in an open document format (ODF)”

Democratizing software

There’s a lot to be said about democratizing softwares, but I’ll sum it up below!

What does open source mean? What are the benefits?

According to the Deputy CIO of Denver City and County Council in the US, here are the benefits of open source for government.

  • The huge user community = Society
  • The ability to share code = Voice your opinion
  • The ability to contribute = Vote
  • The ability to get people excited about being able to learn something new and contribute = Democratic Society

Sounds a lot like democracy doesn’t it? Why? Because its all about democratizing our softwares and getting real value for our money as citizens. Find out more in the video below.

Proud of Bristol City Council

We’re proud that Bristol is leading the way for open source in government. Zaizi is working hard with BCC’s to roll out eletronic document and records management to automate their business process and reduce paper. And most importantly, Zaizi delivers open source solutions to its customers. So its a perfect match!

With that, I would like to call upon everyone again to answer the Open Standards Consultation, as I’ve said before and many others before me, RESPOND TO THE OPEN STANDARDS CONSULTATION BEFORE THE END OF APRIL!

  1. Respond to the consultation — made even easier by this response form developed by Ric Harvey
  2. Attend the events — these seem pretty full now, but try to get in if you can
  3. Spread the message — blog and tweet and write to raise awareness of the importance and impact that this consultation could have
  4. Attend the Open Gov Summit 2012 in London
Hope this was useful!

 

 

Filed Under: Open Source, Open Source Software Tagged With: , , ,

Pros and cons of Open Source Solutions

April 23, 2012 By
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This article is from the “All about Open Source - An Introduction to Open Source Software for Government IT” paper (Version 1.0).

Pros and cons of Open Source Solutions 

In recent years the software and wider IT marketplace has developed to make open source products more competitive and easier to include in enterprise business solutions. However the suitability of open source is best determined on a case-by-case basis and requires a detailed and well-informed evaluation. A fair assessment needs to be made as to which solution offers the best value for the taxpayer, it is important to bear in mind that there will be pros and cons for any solution.

Pros of Open Source may include:

  1. The acquisition cost, development and implementation contract costs are likely to be lower than for proprietary software. It is less likely that there will be contractually-bound upgrade costs. However, the total cost of ownership over the lifetime of usage must be taken into account
  2. Data transferability; with open source code and a move towards open data formats, there are greater opportunities to share data across interoperable platforms
  3. Increased opportunities for re use. Because open source is free from per user or per instance costs and there is a guaranteed freedom to use in any way, reuse is enabled.
  4. Paying once for development (if at all) and reuse across government where appropriate, therefore offering cost effectiveness.
  5. By virtue of their collaborative design, many user-facing open source products are intuitive for the user
  6. Potential for fast cycle time of releases and bug fixes; (dependent on whether or not there are people, resources and interest to develop the releases and bug fixes
  7. Opportunities for customisation and community innovation within government and the wider public sector, and also citizens, SMEs.
  8. Open source licences do not limit or restrict who can use the software, the type of user, or the areas of business in which the software can be used. Therefore, OSS provides a licensing model that enables rapid provisioning of both known and unanticipated users and in new use cases.
  9. Open Source solutions are scalable in both directions – upwards and downwards with a reduction in the risk of longer term financial implications. For example, procurers wont have to pay a licence fee on a “per user” or “per box” basis so they are not left with redundant licences
  10. Open source software can be operated and maintained by multiple suppliers encouraging competition and providing an opportunity for SMEs to compete in the government market; which lead to code sharing cultures, better citizen accessibility, and greater control over IT projects. Potential to reduce reliance on particular software developers or suppliers which could encourage competition and reduce commercial barriers to entry and exit for government.
  11. Open source software is particularly suitable for rapid prototyping and experimentation, where the ability to “test drive” the software with minimal costs and administrative delays can be important.  Proprietary software suppliers may also provide the same through a ‘proof of concept’ phase at minimal or no cost.

Cons of Open Source may include:

  1. If the source code is made available to the wider community, it is also vulnerable to threats from the hacker community. This may be mitigated by separating the development code from the version used in the final solution and/or using a test environment for updates before implementation
  2. Support and maintenance costs may outweigh those of the proprietary package and include ‘hidden’ commitments. A full assessment of the total cost of ownership along with the proposed supplier will help to mitigate this risk
  3. Intellectual property rights – as code is modified and adapted by departments, there may be legal risks around whether the code retains its open source status and who owns the intellectual property rights of the modified code; and
  4. Those considering using and developing open source ‘in-house’ must ensure that they have the right level of expertise to manage it effectively.
  5. Large SIs may be reluctant to propose open source solutions which may generate less revenue and not be aligned with their product or skill set
  6. Open source solutions may require additional development to enable integration with an existing proprietary environment. Some open source solutions may never work well with established proprietary products
  7. Staff are traditionally trained (and practised) in using proprietary software programs, the introduction of new programs/software may require staff retraining in order to enable them to use open source solutions.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Open Source

Why doesn’t Government mandate the use of open source solutions?

April 23, 2012 By
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This article is from the “All about Open Source - An Introduction to Open Source Software for Government IT” paper (Version 1.0).

Why doesn’t Government mandate the use of open source solutions?

The UK Government’s interpretation of European procurement legislation would deem the mandating of open source as a breach of antitrust law. This rests on the current interpretation of whether open source is a product or a feature. European countries, such as Italy, interpret open source as a feature rather than a product. This means that preference for open source is simply preference for a legal feature of a product and, in stating this preference, no commercial vendor has been inappropriately favoured or disfavoured.

Furthermore, mandating open source would preclude the option of proprietary software from the procurement process. It is yet to be categorically proven that open source software provides better value for money when considering the total cost of ownership. Therefore, Cabinet Office takes the position that it will level the playing field for open source software, allowing departments to select the best value-for-money option.

Open Source Myths

Whilst the current policy has existed since 2004, evidence suggests there is still relatively little open source software used by Government. There have been various reasons suggested for this, some of which are ‘open source myths’.

Open Source is less secure

False.

A major barrier to the consideration of OSS is the misconception that it inherently brings with it greater risk than proprietary software.

The fact that source code is easily available is perceived as a significant security risk, which has possibly increased wariness of open source across Government departments. Some fear that because the source code is available to all, open source software is inherently less secure and thereby more risky than closed source solutions/options. This is often countered with the “thousand eyes” argument, which suggests the accessibility of code actually promotes early detection of vulnerabilities and encourages fixes that therefore lead to a more secure product. There are advantages and disadvantages for both proprietary products and OSS, both will have vulnerabilities and both may be subject to attack. As with proprietary software, there are good and bad examples of open source software.

Current CESG Guidance4 takes the view that ‘no one particular type of software is inherently more, or less, secure than the other and does not favour one type over the other. Each must be approached on a case-by-case basis.’ This means that open source options cannot be excluded from evaluation on the basis of the above security arguments.

A related but prevalent myth is that Departments must only use accredited software products. This is a misunderstanding of the security and accreditation process. Products are not accredited, whole solutions are. Solutions consist of inherently vulnerable software products, configurations, information flows, users, physical and other controls, and mitigations against risks.

CESG does assure a small set of limited functionality products, and these are generally security enforcing products, such as firewalls or cryptographic systems. The vast majority of software products used by Government do not fall into this category. Furthermore, there is no intrinsic reason why these assured products can’t be open source.

It is not possible to cost an Open Source Solution

False.

Open source software can be obtained at zero cost. A user is then free to select and pay for the most appropriate level of support and services. For common enterprise open source software, there is an established market for paid-for support and services, and it is normal for systems integrators to back off their support to these providers.

In some cases it is entirely reasonable to use open source without any support, for example prototyping, and with minimal support, for example trials and pilots. This is a key advantage of open source software.

Departments will be required to undertake a more sophisticated evaluation of the costs of software ownership, which more usefully compares open and closed source software. A Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model takes into account several factors which affect lifetime costs and cost avoidance, including acquisition, in-life changes, integration, interoperability and open standards, technology lock-in dependency chains, multi-supplier market competition, and exit costs. The practise of simply comparing purchase unit prices does not take into account these additional sources of additional cost and cost avoidance.

A business case, incorporating a TCO comparison, should also assign weights for the alignment to strategic and policy aims. For example, if a solution option lowers barriers to SME engagement then this needs to be reflected in the comparison of options, with an appropriate weight.

For further reading please refer to Total Cost of Ownership – Things to Consider.

Open Source isn’t licensed

False.

Open source software is defined by its license. However open source licenses are essentially terms of use, and not items to be purchased as can be the case for proprietary software.

Software is property that is protected under copyright law. Open source software is not exempt from this and using OSS brings with it certain obligations. Therefore before downloading and using software applications or source code it is necessary to establish the licence model for open source software.

There are a variety of licence models for open source, where each licence model has specific terms for the use and modification of code.  For this reason, it is important to understand both the specifics of the open source licence in question and how the Department intends to use and redistribute any modified OSS.

The most widely known models are:

    1. GPL  version 3, and version 2 is still widely used
    2. GNU Lesser General Public Licence (LGPL)
    3. BSD Licence
    4. Mozilla Public Licence (MPL)
    5. Apache Licence

Commercial and legal professionals often expect to find proprietary licenses to cover indemnity against intellectual property infringement, warranties against performance, and accepted or limited liabilities. Open source licenses are not used to cover these issues, which are therefore addressed by service or support contracts.

Many open source licences permit the user to modify OSS for internal use without being obliged to distribute source code to the public. However, if the user chooses to distribute the modified OSS outside the user’s organization (e.g., a government user distributes the executable software outside government), then some open source licences (”copyleft” licenses such as the GPL) do require that the recipient of the software can also access the associated modified source code.  If the modified software is not distributed outside government, the obligation to share the modified source code is not triggered, which can ease security concerns.

The vast majority of enterprise open source users do not modify source code but simply take packaged software components from suppliers, who provide support and services, just as is the case for proprietary software. This means the “copyleft” obligations are an issue for these users, and any software change issues are managed by the software suppliers.

Open Source is just the latest fad

False

Open source software is not new and has been in commercial use since the mid-1990s. Today it used by the largest of organisations, running very large scale or critical infrastructures. Open source is also used by organisations for whom security is a priority.

Whilst the term ‘open source’ was not coined until 1998 some of the concepts behind it have been in existence since the 1980s. For example Richard Stallman’s concept of Copyleft as an alternative to Copyright to ensure material could be freely used, copied, examined, adapted and built upon, originated in 1985. In 1991 Linus Tovalds released Linux Kernal as freely modifiable code and within 2 years computers were being sold with Linux pre-installed.

Open source was first investigated by Cabinet Office as early as 20015 and as early as 2002 it was considered necessary to have an explicit policy, on the use of OSS within UK Government.

The current version of the policy dates back to 2004, which indicates how long Government has been trying to encourage the implementation of open source solutions where they provide the best value for money.

The policy was restated in 2009 in the ‘Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan’, in recognition that engagement with and implementation of OSS was not as good/positive as expected. This was refreshed again early 20106.

This was followed by 2 specific open source actions in the HMG ICT Strategy published in March 2011, which set out to ensure/create a ‘level playing field’ for open source solutions. With Government’s increased focus on VfM, common standards, transparency and data transferability it is likely that open source will become more important.

Next, read Pros and cons of Open Source Solutions 

Filed Under: Open Source

Open Source Policy

April 23, 2012 By
Email

This article is from the “All about Open Source - An Introduction to Open Source Software for Government IT” paper (Version 1.0).

Open Source Policy

The current version of the policy was published in 2004 and was restated in 2009 in the ‘Open Source, Open Standards and Re-Use: Government Action Plan’.

The restated policy on open source software aimed to ensure maximum value for money for taxpayers. The policy reflected changes to both the open source market and the Government’s approach to IT.

The policy set out a requirement for there to be a level playing field for open source software, and encouraged the use of open standards and the re-use of already purchased software. The Action Plan set out the steps needed across Government, and with our IT suppliers, to take advantage of the benefits of open source.

The key points of the Government’s policy are set out below:

Open Source Software 

(1) The Government will actively and fairly consider open source solutions alongside proprietary ones in making procurement decisions,

(2) Procurement decisions will be made on the basis on the best value for money solution to the business requirement, taking account of total lifetime cost of ownership of the solution, including exit and transition costs, after ensuring that solutions fulfil minimum and essential capability, security, scalability, transferability, support and manageability requirements.

(3) The Government will expect those putting forward IT solutions to develop where necessary a suitable mix of open source and proprietary products to ensure that the best possible overall solution can be considered.

(4) Where there is no significant overall cost difference between open and non-open source products, open source will be selected on the basis of its additional inherent flexibility.

Next, read Why doesn’t Government mandate the use of open source solutions?

Filed Under: Open Source

What are Open Standards?

April 23, 2012 By
Email

This article is from the “All about Open Source - An Introduction to Open Source Software for Government IT” paper (Version 1.0).

What are Open Standards? 

Policy states that the Government will use open standards in its procurement specifications and require solutions to comply with open standards.

Government defines ‘open standards’ as standards which:

  • result from and are maintained through and open, independent process
  • are approved by a recognised specification or standardisation organisation, for example W3C or ISO or equivalent
  • are thoroughly documented and publicly available at zero or low cost
  • have intellectual property made irrevocably available on a royalty free basis, and
  • as a whole can be implemented and shared under different development approaches and on a number of platforms.3

Cabinet Office also mandates that when purchasing software, ICT infrastructure and other ICT goods and services Government departments should wherever possible deploy open standards in their procurement specifications. This is because Government assets should be interoperable and open for re-use in order to maximise return on investment, avoid technological or supplier lock-in, reduce operational risk in ICT projects and provide responsive services for citizens and business. This should also lower barriers to entry for more diverse sources of IT services, including citizens and SMEs.

Work on the strengthening of open standards in Government is ongoing, under Action 22 of the HMG ICT Strategy ‘To allow for greater interoperability, openness and reuse of ICT solutions, the Government will establish a suite of agreed and mandatory open technical standards’.

See Appendix A for links to further reading on open source.

Filed Under: Open Source

What is Open Source Software?

April 23, 2012 By
Email

This article is from the Cabinet Offices’s “All about Open Source - An Introduction to Open Source Software for Government IT” paper (Version 1.0).

What is Open Source Software? 

Open source software is software like any other. However it is distinguished by its license, or terms of use, which guarantees certain freedoms, in contrast to closed proprietary software which restricts these rights. Open source software guarantees the right to access and modify the source code, and to use, reuse and redistribute the software, all with no royalty or other costs. In some cases, there can be an obligation to share improvements with the wider community, thus guaranteeing global benefit.

These, apparently simple guarantees, have powerful implications:

  • Encourage reuse
  • Enable innovation, flexibility, easier integration
  • Drives down price of software to zero
  • No vendor or service monopoly means no reason to hide defects and security vulnerabilities
  • No single-vendor means diversity of support and services choice, sustained competition is a customer benefit
  • No vendor monopoly means no reason to avoid free and open standards
  • “Darwinian evolution” improves key software
  • Lower barriers to entry, widens participation

In general terms, open source software is licensed under terms which allow the user to practise, the so called “four freedoms”:

  1. Use the software without access restrictions, within the terms of the licence applied
  2. View the source code
  3. Improve and add to the object and source code, within the terms of the licence applied and this may include a term making it mandatory to publish modified code on the community website
  4. Distribute the source code.

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) maintains the Open Source Definition (OSD), and is recognised globally as the authority on certifying whether a license is truly open source. There is no reason why any public body would deviate from the OSD and the OSI certifications of true open source licenses.

Whilst there are many open source licenses, the majority of commonly used software uses the same handful of common licenses.  This means that the legal and commercial overhead for understanding and managing open source licenses is significantly reduced.

It is common for the open computing community to distinguish between “free” meaning zero-price, and “free” meaning the liberty and guarantees discussed above. To help distinguish the two, the term “libre” is increasingly used for the latter.

Next, read What are Open Standards? 

Filed Under: Open Source

Open Source in Government

April 23, 2012 By
Email

This article is from the “All about Open Source - An Introduction to Open Source Software for Government IT” paper (Version 1.0).

Open Source in Government

Government is committed to implement more innovative ways of working, and a clear re-use and interoperability agenda including ensuring a level playing field for open source and proprietary software. Recognising the merits of OSS, Government takes the view that where there is no significant overall cost difference between open and non-open source products, open source should be selected on the basis of its additional inherent flexibility.2

The increased maturity of open source products and services has made it easier for Government to engage with OSS. However, open source software (OSS) is only slowly gaining traction in Government, particularly when compared with the private sector and other public sectors including some European government sectors.

Relatively low levels of adoption have been attributed to a lack of understanding of the potential benefits of OSS, accompanied by a risk-averse technical and procurement culture, compounded by significant levels of misconceptions about open source security and its services ecosystem.

On the whole contracts are large and encompass a large estate, this has limited the suppliers (and solutions) able to meet the requirements and to some extent has excluded SMEs and open source solutions. Contracts have therefore traditionally been awarded to SIs who have their own set of preferred (and usually proprietary) products. Their existing agreements are with proprietary software houses and existing skills are focused on proprietary products, there is not a culture of actively looking for open source software. There may also be commercial incentives for the incumbent systems integrators to work with a limited set of proprietary software vendors.

Government departments are often locked into these contacts and in most cases feel they have little scope to explore alternative open source solutions for evolving requirements within the business.

A change in the mindset is required for those involved in writing requirements, including SIs, or undertaking procurement or projects. The challenge is to enable both open source and proprietary solutions to be proposed, compared and fairly assessed on merit.

A change is required in (1) the bundling of risk and calculation of risk appetite by the customer, (2) the diversity and competitive tension in the IT supplier market, (3) an improvement in the intelligent customer function.

Next, read What is Open Source Software? 

Filed Under: Open Source
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