When I was starting out in the web industry (back before the turn of century), open source options were available but were often ruled out as risky business investments. At the time, they were relatively feature poor (compared to enterprise solutions) and a bet on the wrong technology could potentially cost someone their job. It was around this time that I heard the phrase "no one gets fired for choosing Microsoft".
This insight was a fairly profound one, as it meant two things:
- Open source was perceived as risky, while Microsoft (and enterprise) was safe.
- The more innovative solution generally loses out to the safe solution.
These days a lot has changed in the open source world. Open source solutions like Drupal are more feature rich, more flexible and more extensible than many of the entrenched "enterprise" solutions. And they are significantly less costly, because of the lack of licensing fees, which can reach the six or seven figure mark for many applications.
Enterprise solutions have become the victims of their own success and their brand promise. They were selected because they were safe, and because safety is core offering, they have been unable to innovate. In many cases, the enterprise software is literally the same today as it was 10 years ago, leaving them 10 years behind in innovation, available features and user experience.
These days, the value proposition for companies have changed. License-free cost expectations has permeated every tier of the modern business, from the content creators to the CEO and everyone in between. Now, when a CFO looks at their cashflow and sees a large licensing fee they ask themselves "what is the return we are getting on this investment? Is there a more cost-effective alternative?"
Today, the safe solution has become the one that was allowed to innovate and grow over the past decade. Open source is the new Microsoft, and so it's time to rewrite the phrase. In today's world, no one gets fired for choosing open source.