Open source is more than just a low-cost alternative to packaged applications. When you use it to extend, rather than replace, your existing enterprise applications, it is a powerful new tool for innovation.

Open source software is one of the technologies we use at Entercoms to create light-footprint enterprise components. These components come together very quickly, adding capabilities that extend the core enterprise applications. Companies can try them with low risk, refine them, and keep what works. They provide a powerful new tool for innovation on top of the existing core enterprise applications.

The advantage is summed up nicely in a post on CIO Blogs by Bernard Golden:

"In a world of expensive, inflexible software, only the most conservative, obvious-payoff projects get funded. In the new world of open source, companies can experiment, develop prototypes on the cheap, and inexpensively scale the winners. To understand this dynamic, look at the Web 2.0 companies. I don't necessarily believe that most of them have a sustainable business at their core -- but that's not important. What they represent is a totally different way of getting Internet businesses off the ground."

Open source and Web 2.0 applications are not just for new companies – they also allow established companies to take new paths to innovation, while still benefiting from the structure of their core enterprise applications and data.

Drop me a line if you'd like to discuss how to apply this concept to your existing applications.