[TriLUG] OSS Stack & SIs

[Jay Barrett]

Jeremy,
Yes OSS = open source software.
Specifically in banking:
   1. Market data management
   2. Derivative pricing via grid running Monte Carlo simulations.
   3. Xml repository in object database for capturing of metadata
surrounding trade execution.
   4. X-registry (alternative to UDDI for internal web services)

My observation, independent of the banking question, is that in general
there is a movement by enterprises towards open source software for
applications. However, there appears to be gaps between business needs and
vendor capabilities. Companies are getting their feet wet with small point
solutions. SI/VARs and many consultants offer entry services (hosting,
email, etc). Some specialize in point products (db like mysql/postgres, app
server like jboss, web server like apache). However, what inhibits broader
adoption is the enterprises desire for a supported "complete infrastructure
stack" as well as the "applications" on top of it (btw I include licensing /
legal issues in support). [Preemptive comment: And yes I know IBM's armies
can solve ALL problems if only we had endless $$$s]

So today you have small groups that can solve a portion of the problem and
IMHO the second biggest pain is always the integration / orchestration of
these parts into the whole. The biggest pain is unwinding stuff when things
go wrong (Murphy's Law) to figure out who IS going to help me solve the
problem.

Consequently, a gap exists in the market:
	1 Business managers have needs, but are RISK adverse
	2 As long as needs (performance/scalability/reliability, etc) are not
currently being met by existing proprietary vendors the opportunity exists
for these vendors to incrementally string along the customers
	3 OSS is product driven (OK Red Hat now has OS & App Server, but those are
commodity items and only part of a stack)
	4 OSS although having some of the sharpest minds tends to focus on products
that are on the back-end of the technology curve
	5 SI/VARS typically have limited domain expertise (point products and
industry)

As a result, we progress at a snails pace.....

Anyways...back to the banking, been working on these types of projects but
in London not RTP, hence my question about local/regional skill bases.
Forgive my meandering about why the adoption of OSS has been slow.

Regards,
Jay



Message: 2
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 12:18:18 -0400
From: Jeremy Portzer <jeremyp at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: [TriLUG] OSS Stack & SIs
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list <trilug at trilug.org>
Message-ID: <1098289097.2688.212.camel at jeremy.dtcc.cc.nc.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

On Wed, 2004-10-20 at 12:10, Jay Barrett wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Is anybody aware of any regional mid-size SI/VARs (50-100 people)
> that can support a complete OSS stack? To banks?
>
> There seems to be lots of people/small companies that support
> point applications, but a gap in developing and supporting a
> solution. Unless of course you go to the IBM's or Accenture's of
> this world.

What do you mean by "OSS Stack" ?  Open Source Software ... to do what
specifically?

Jeremy