On Commercial vs Open Source Databases
December 22, 2014
Perhaps we should not be surprised that MarkLogic’s Chet Hays urges caution before adopting an open-source data platform. His article, “Thoughts on How to Select Between COTS and Open Source” at Sys-Con Media can be interpreted as a defense of his database company’s proprietary approach. (For those unfamiliar with the acronym, COTS stands for commodity off-the-shelf.) Hayes urges buyers to look past initial cost and consider other factors in three areas: technical, cultural, and, yes, financial.
In the “technical” column, Hayes asserts that whether a certain solution will meet an organization’s needs is more complex than a simple side-by-side comparison of features would suggest; we are advised to check the fine print. “Cultural” refers here to taking workers’ skill sets into consideration. Companies usually do this with their developers, Hayes explains, but often overlook the needs of the folks in operational support, who might appreciate the more sophisticated tools built into a commercial product. (No mention is made of the middle ground, where we find third-party products designed that add such tools to Hadoop iterations.)
In his comments on financial impact, Hayes basically declares: It’s complicated. He writes:
“Organizations need to look at the financial picture from a total-cost perspective, looking at the acquisition and development costs all the way through the operations, maintenance and eventual retirement of the system. In terms of development, the organization should understand the costs associated with using a COTS provided tool vs. an Open Source tool.
“[…] In some cases, the COTS tool will provide a significant productivity increase and allow for a quicker time to market. There will be situations where the COTS tool is so cumbersome to install and maintain that an Open Source tool would be the right choice.
“The other area already alluded to is the cost for operations and maintenance over the lifecycle of project. Organizations should take into consideration existing IT investments to understand where previous investments can be leveraged and the cost incurred to leverage these systems. Organizations should ask whether the performance of one or the other allow for a reduced hardware and deployment footprint, which would lead to lower costs.”
These are all good points, and organizations should indeed do this research before choosing a solution. Whether the results point to an open-source solution or to a commercial option depends entirely upon the company or institution.
Cynthia Murrell, December 22, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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