#CloudMinds: Open standards and the ecosystem
Among the most consistent debates in cloud and mobile technology today is the question of proprietary vs. open ecosystems. Our group of 16 #CloudMinds experts tackled the topic during a recent huddle at IBM Insight in Las Vegas.
Phil Buckellew, IBM vice president of Enterprise Mobile and #CloudMinds huddle co-host, kicked off the conversation with the question, “Will proprietary models carry the day, or does openness add more value?”
Anand Babu Periasamy, CEO and co-founder of the cloud storage company Minio, brought the conversation back to the idea of value. The most valuable product — whether open source or not — will eventually win the day, he said. Still, Periasamy admitted, “If you’re in the disruption game, today it’s become really hard to be a proprietary vendor. If you’re open source, you can build up a powerful ecosystem, you align the rest of the world toward you, and you get to disrupt the industry.”
Another perspective on the subject: It’s not about open or closed ecosystem — it’s about speed and performance.
“If you can get to market faster with a solution that’s 10x better, it doesn’t matter whether it’s proprietary or open source,” said Carsten Puls, chief product officer for the cloud service provider Frame. “You can build an ecosystem around proprietary software, but today it’s all about speed. Disruption can happen really quickly. What matters is what gets you to that 10x solution.”
Another view suggested that open standards are most valuable when they’re managed effectively and bring together the right stakeholders.
Sarah Cooper, chief operating officer for the IoT company M2Mi, noted that the IT industry should be mindful when venturing into new standards. When they work, Cooper said, is “when you get enough of the key players eyeballing each other that there’s a natural tension.” She cited OpenStack and Docker as examples where the key players have worked together to drive those projects forward.
The challenge for IoT is identifying those types of projects and sticking with them. “If you want to stay away from the ‘Who’s standard is going to win this week?’ question, keep it simple,” Cooper said.
In other words: Have standards for your standards.
But it’s ultimately about meeting the customer’s need, right? Several huddlers alluded to speed when it came to open technology — and customers’ demand for it. For new open tech to be relevant, it must be developed at a pace that meets the needs of the end user.
“The decision will ultimately be driven by what the customer needs,” said Christina Richards, vice president of marketing for the wireless fiber alternative provider AOptix. “That may become more important in the end than what the standards are.”
Avoa CIO Tim Crawford agreed, saying, “At the end of the day, whether it’s open or closed doesn’t matter. What matters is what the buyer is willing to buy.” If a product is open sourced and that’s valuable to the customer and gets them to buy, then it makes sense. “But ultimately, that’s going to come back to the value proposition for the buyer,” he said.
What do you think: Simply put, are you more willing to purchase an IT solution if it’s open or proprietary?