If
you are a
decision
-maker or involved with any aspect of business
intelligence in your company, you will benefit enormously from
attending the BI Summit and James Taylor's
decision management workshop.
[Johannesburg,
16 March 2005] - Open source
will be a key driver towards open standards, but this does not
mean all players can't co-exist in this space, delegates at an
open enterprise conference were told yesterday.
Addressing ITWeb's “Open enterprise: Attaining business
agility” event in Bryanston, Willie Appel, keynote speaker and
Meta Group executive directions international VP, said open source
should not be seen as a “saviour” to businesses looking to
implement open standards, but rather as a tool that levels the
playing field.
“The sharing of source code is the means, not the end, of
open enterprise development. I think the bottom line is that we
must develop our own enterprise architecture to include the
drivers for enterprise. This involves taking a view on tactical
versus strategic open source implementation.”
In his presentation, Appel also highlighted some of the key
factors for open source in the open enterprise, adding that
support from major vendors as well as independent software vendors
is vital. “We must also remember that open source does not drive
standards – business does.
“Just look at the Internet. Nothing really happened until
around 1995, when business saw its value and it started to pick
up. I predict the same will happen with open source.”
Looking at the open source roll-out in the local market, Appel
said companies seem to be stuck at the tactical level, and are
still trying to figure out what open source can do for them.
“We have created a fairly high level of competency regarding
open source, but the drive towards it is not clear. I am not so
sure it is simply a cost decision, but rather a value versus risk
proposition.”
Unclear path to OSS? Video: David
Leighton
PLAY VIDEO WIN | REAL
Risk
and value could play more of a role than cost, says Meta
Group's Willie Appel.
Novell SA business solutions architect James Thomas told
delegates how open standards play a key role in obtaining
“business agility” – the ability for a company to quickly
and efficiently respond to change, and use it for competitive
advantage.
“Open standards will allow your company to optimise agility
while reducing risk,” he said.
The fact that there are clashes with standards at present is
hardly surprising, added Thomas, as all systems are
heterogeneous. “If you think your company's systems are all
the same, then you are wrong. No one vendor does everything.”
People often assume that open source and open standards are
the same thing, said Sun Microsystems senior systems engineer
Dumisani Mtobo, even though there are a number of
differentiators.
The bonus of standards Video: David
Leighton
PLAY VIDEO WIN | REAL
Standards
help boost interoperability while preventing vendor
lock-in, says Sun Microsystems' Dumisani Mtobo.
While source code is always clearly visible in open source, the
same is not true for open standards, said Mtobo. “Also, the
very nature of open source means it is not compelled to conform
to agreed conventions, while open standards must adhere strictly
to set criteria.”
Open enterprise will obviously require a degree of
standardisation, said Mtobo, but the notion of applying
standards to open source can rile a number of people. “Open
source is often viewed as such a saviour, so as soon as you want
to start applying any standards to it – like Sun and Linux –
people automatically label this as proprietary.
“The problem here is that the word ‘proprietary' has
taken on many negative connotations in the media, and some
people even consider it evil.”
Business process the key Video: David
Leighton
PLAY VIDEO WIN | REAL
Companies
should focus more on business processes than on their
selected technology, says SAP's Alvin Paules.
Also speaking at the conference, SAP Africa Netweaver solutions
manager Alvin Paules provided a SAP outlook on open standards.
“We see open standards as critical to creating an open
enterprise, and not just within the enterprise walls, but
through the entire value chain.”
However, Paules stressed that the focus should not be as much
with the technology used, as with a company's business
processes.
“Whether you use open source or proprietary, it does not
matter. This is the position SAP has taken according to our
experience in the industry. The real value is in optimising your
business processes. You need to ask: ‘Does the technology
matter, or is it more important to exploit the most appropriate
solutions to provide you with the maximum benefit?' This is the
importance of open standards.”
Speaker
documentation:
Conference
delegates click here to access
the speaker documentation.
Event
sponsor:
Today, more than 24 450 customers in over 120 countries run
in excess of 84 000 installations of SAP's
business solutions software - from distinct solutions for SMEs to
enterprise-scale suite solutions for global organisations - covering
over 25 industry segments, including high tech, retail, public sector and
financial services.
Platinum
sponsor:
Microsoft
focuses on broadening choices for customers by identifying new business
areas; incubating products; integrating new customer scenarios into
existing businesses; and exploring acquisitions of key talent and
experience.
Gold
sponsors:
EPI-USE
is a global world-class services and software organisation,
with a focus on open enterprise-grade technology. Its
core competency is to custom design, develop and deploy
appropriate technology solutions for its customers.
Silver
sponsor:
Oracle, the world’s largest enterprise software
company with 45 000 employees worldwide, lives the Open Enterprise concept.
Oracle runs its entire business, and software development environment on
Linux. Read
more.
Bronze
sponsors:
Copyright (c) 1996 - 2010 ITWeb Limited.
All rights reserved.
[za]
Would you like to see your news here?
Contact us for more details at itnews@itweb.co.za
If
you are a 
