Open source has become a serious contender in enterprise IT. Considering the opportunity for financial benefits along with the flexibility that comes through from the software's source code, the freedom from vendor lock-in, and the potential for improved security, reliability and performance, open source is rapidly gaining acceptance.
This report is a practical guide for understanding and calculating the financial benefits of open source. It will introduce the basics of financial analysis - concepts, processes and elements - and provide a tool to help identify and capture the costs (and potential benefits) for your project, whether you are an end user with a custom application, a system integrator (SI) considering an open source solutions offering, or an independent software vendor (ISV) looking at the embedding of open source in your software.
Blawg (law blog) focused on business, commercial transactions, technology startups and emerging growth companies