SiliconGrassland.com

It seems these days that the fear mongering has taken over the news, and a lot of people’s minds. I’ve been hearing from every corner of business lately that the world is ending. It’s not.

DataSync had it’s best month ever in terms of new subscribers last month, and we’re already past that in October. People haven’t stopped doing business, but they have changed how they do it. We happen to host and integrate open source software, which is a much more cost effective alternative to expensive onsite proprietary software.

For those of you in businesses that deliver little value with high upfront cost: beware. The world is ending for you. Our professional services business has slowed significantly, and our hosting business has picked up. I would guess that we’re not the only ones. Businesses are cutting back on expensive consulting projects and moving towards more flexible open solutions.

As I have been in the past, I’m very bullish on all things open. As Matt Asay has mentioned, the recession will be kind to open source companies:

Open source breeds communities, which in turn add value to the software, making this innovation more of a group effort (and, hence, potentially a less costly effort). In turn, open source should be a big winner in this downturn, just as it was in 2000 to 2001.

I’ve gotta agree with Matt here, open source drives a lot of value in a down market. We’ll see what things look like in 6 months

The fear mongering is in full force. The news is full of bank failures, an ongoing housing crisis, and gas prices that won’t go down. Sounds gloomy, eh?

But it isn’t all bad. Open source is poised for a boom. According to OStatic.com, more and more businesses are switching to open source to cut costs and increase value:

“The adoption of OSS continues to increase among banks and investment services firms. Among the investment services firms surveyed, approximately 84 percent expect to be using open source software by the end of 2008. Adoption is most notable in this category because they are impacted by escalating transaction volumes and data processing requirements as well as cost pressures.”

Once again, economic pressures and recessionary environments force businesses to trim fat and get more efficient. This proves the value and long-term benefits of running an open infrastructure. The thinning years prove the meddle of any technology, and it’s great to see confidence in the open source model in times that test any business model.