Indian open source community, biggest in the World

BANGALORE, INDIA: The technology industry in India has developed significantly in the last few years and India has evolved relatively well to the idea of open source software and adoption rates are remarkably good.

With many companies embracing for open-source technologies, the role of open source in IT has been changed in many companies.

In an interaction with CIOL, Gyana Pattnaik, Head - Open Source, Testing and New Technologies, Sonata Software shares his views on the adoption of open source in IT and why are open standards important in software development.

Excerpts:

CIOL: How do you see the adoption of open source platform from the Indian software developer community?

Gyana Pattnaik: The Indian Open Source Software community is one of the world’s largest open source communities. Organisations and individuals in India have slowly started realizing that open source platforms open up to new technologies, encourage collaboration and drive innovation which in turn play a major role in developing markets and economies.

The open source movement has changed the course of modern software development. The developer community is making software available to one and all at no or low cost. The community should now look at contributing towards the development of tools that are stable, with up-to-date documentation, for better adoption.

CIOL: With the latest reports quoting Android will dominate in open source area, how it is going to benefit open source developers?

GP: The widespread acceptance of Android and its commitment to being open sourced has led it to be utilized in mobile devices from around the globe. Android is the premier operating system for companies large and small that are looking for versatility and flexibility.

The Android community in India is fairly large; hence the success of the platform will enable the community to grow even more rapidly. The advantages that the developers can expect to get from an open source platform are numerous.

The developers are at liberty to modify the Android operating system in a way that it meets the requirement of specific applications. It helps the developers to achieve perfection in application development.

Next: Why open standards...

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CIOL: According to you, why are open standards important in software development?

GP: Interoperability is a major requirement for industries and governments in a society that is increasingly moving towards global collaboration and integration.

Open standards built on the principles of openness, transparency and consensus lay the grounds for innovation, growth and fair competition. While interoperability may not be a primary concern when new technologies are launched in the market and used by a small group of users, accomplishment of broad-based interoperability based on open standard specifications become increasingly important as a larger market develops. 

By strict adherence to standards and specifications a high degree of interoperability can be achieved. Standards that are open and non-discriminatory are preferred because there is no dependence on any single entity, all types of products can implement them and all interested companies can partake in their development.

Besides that, open standards have also proven to be an important facilitator for innovation. By providing an agreed, reliable and globally valid base of technology, open standards allow innovators to develop highly competitive, innovative technologies and solutions “on top” of the standard.

Open source software can support reusability of good implementations and is frequently an important enhancement to the market adoption of open standards. Open standards can be well implemented by software irrespective of whether it is open source software or proprietary software.

However, access to source code can also improve trust in interoperability through transparency and it also may support platform portability.

CIOL: I understand, Sonata software has various lifecycle projects that work exclusively on the Open Source tools stack. Can you throw light on this?

GP: Sonata has deep expertise in several open Enterprise Automation products. OFBiz and Alfresco are two such examples. There are plenty of open source solutions available in the Mobility, Collaboration and Business Intelligence space. These are some of the emerging trends and technologies in the industry today.

Sonata integrates open source solutions and provides total solutions for complete business processes. We also keep a track of the traditional open source tools and frameworks, which are continuously evolving. At Sonata a large number of employees have built competency on open source solutions.

Next: Security issues in opens source...

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CIOL: How do you propose to deal with the common security issues found in Open Source applications?

GP: In my opinion both open source and commercial, proprietary software have security issues and challenges. In many cases however open source software security issues are identified and patched faster than proprietary software. To deal with the security issues it is important to monitor the environment and install applications and other software in a secure manner. It is also important to monitor bug and security announcements for applications and other software so as to identify vulnerabilities and bugs that may be applicable to the software being developed. It is necessary to patch, upgrade and update software regularly.

CIOL: What are the best ways to motivate open source developer community?

GP: A diverse developer community is critically important to the long-term viability of free and open source projects. We can motivate them by recognizing their contribution to open source tools and technologies at regular intervals.

This is seen as a huge motivating factor. Supporting their learning process, providing them challenges, problem solving opportunities and regular feedback so that they can work on improving their skill-sets are few other motivating factors.

CIOL: According to the recent survey open source is growing quickly in Mobile and Cloud Development. What are the plans from Sonata Software to address these areas?

GP: Sonata has developed deep expertise in both the emerging technologies.  In the mobile space we are enhancing our capabilities to build applications for Android mobiles. One of the focus areas in Cloud has been in bundling open source solutions to integrate, monitor, provision meter Cloud services.