Christopher Saul | Territory Sales Lead | East Africa | Red Hat | mail me |
Though most people don’t realise it, much of the technology we use every day relies on open source software. Many of today’s phones, cars, and IoT devices use the open source Linux kernel operating system as well as over 60% of the world’s websites that run on Apache and Nginx web servers.
Kubernetes, an open source container orchestration system, has become the de facto standard for Linux container development. Furthermore, most of today’s public cloud workload runs on Linux.
Opportunities across every industry
Open source is everywhere, which is why it would come as no surprise that today 90% of global IT leaders are using enterprise open source for IT infrastructure modernisation, application development, and digital transformation.
In Africa, digital technologies have given rise to countless new business models and innovation opportunities across every industry. But the digital economy has also long been dominated by tech giants offering proprietary solutions at costs that can’t be justified within the financial constraints of the African business landscape.
To avoid falling behind global competitors secure their place at the forefront of innovation in IT, more local organisations need to embrace open source to transform their digital capabilities. Here’s why.
The bottom line
Every business wants to be profitable, and one of the best ways to do this is to reduce costs wherever possible.
Software purchases remain costly for many African enterprises, and open source software significantly reduces the initial costs of software acquisition, allowing greater independence from imported technologies and skills. This is especially beneficial for local start-ups with limited financial resources and capacities for developing software from the ground up.
Open source software helps organisations with flexibility and no vendor locked companies should look for solutions that give them greater independence and control over their IT infrastructure and spending.
Open innovation
While the cost savings have been a primary motivator for open source adoption, this perception has changed over the last two years.
Our State of Enterprise Open Source 2021 revealed that the top perceived benefits of open source were ‘higher quality software’ and ‘access to latest innovations’. This is because the true potential of open source lies in the combined strength of its community.
The open source movement started not only to make software more freely accessible but also to foster collaboration between developers on a global scale, bringing the best ideas forward.
The collaborative efforts of thousands of developers have greatly accelerated the software development process. And because code contributions are valued by merit, these projects are constantly improving to remain at the forefront of industry innovation.
The age of agility
In today’s ever-evolving digital business environment, organisations require the flexibility to adopt more competitive operational capabilities, deploy and modify applications at speed, and adapt to changing market conditions.
Proprietary software doesn’t always allow for this as it gives businesses limited or no customisation over their IT infrastructure and any additional capabilities are either not available or come at an extra cost.
But no software is ever truly finished, and it will always require constant updating and improvement. Proprietary solutions being developed in siloes often have slow-release cycles and give customers no say over what’s being added or improved.
In comparison, an open source approach gives companies the agility to update, modify, and customise their existing software to their unique requirements. It also allows them to adopt new technologies faster, more seamlessly, and without the same cross-compatibility challenges that often arise with proprietary software.
In an age where agility is crucial – which has certainly been reinforced by the pandemic – open source can give African businesses the ability to innovate quickly and the freedom to add the features they want, rather than pay more for ones they don’t need.
Organisations can move consistently between different APIs and platforms or choose between on-premise, virtual, private, or public cloud environments based on what’s best for them. And with the collaborative efforts of a global community, everyone who takes part can be first to market and share in each other’s success.
Accelerating African business
Africa’s digital economy is ripe with potential. And while it may seem like the continent is always playing catch-up with more developed nations, open source could serve to accelerate our homegrown businesses into the information age and help bridge the digital divide that separates them from their global competitors.
Open source leads to better software, created with more freedom and flexibility, and at a lower cost of ownership – which is crucial for making leading technologies more accessible to local enterprises.
By encouraging more of Africa’s talented developers and businesses to collaborate and leverage existing open source code, our continent will be paving its own way forward into the digital future.
