IT Policy Guide/External Software Preferences

Free Software Policy Overview

For the benefit of this institution and our members, we are adopting a strong IT policy encouraging the use of free software.

External Software Preferences

Motivation

Free software, popularly marketed as Open Source Software, is software that allows its users to use, study, modify and redistribute it without restriction. Free software is software distributed under a copyright license approved by the Free Software Foundation and makes no implications regarding technical support or indemnification.

There are several reasons to prefer free software over proprietary alternatives including the elimination of vendor lock-in and licensing fees, simplified software management, increased security, better software quality, interoperability, and more. Free software is gaining widespread adoption due to these factors, and this policy will help us stay relevant.

Vendor lock-in

Using free software instead of proprietary software reduces reliance on a particular software supplier. Free software can be maintained by multiple suppliers, thus reducing barriers to entry and exit. Proprietary software users are at the mercy of the vendor's vision, requirements, dictates, prices, priorities and timetable.

Licensing fees

Since the monetary cost of free software typically lies in support and maintenance as opposed to licensing, free software can provide a cost advantage in situations where many copies of the software may be required, and can mitigate risk of cost growth due to licensing in situations where the total number of users may not be known in advance.

Upgrades

Users of free software will always have access to free upgrades without being trapped between using out-of-date or insecure software, and paying for upgrades.

Sustanability

When your business uses proprietary software such as Microsoft Windows and Office, you are on a treadmill that requires you to keep upgrading both software and hardware ad infinitum. Open source software, on the other hand, is typically much less resource-intensive, meaning that you can run it well even on older hardware. It's up to you--not some vendor--to decide when it's time to upgrade.

Obsolesence

Proprietary software vendors often practice extend, enhance, extinguish.

Support options

Because free software is not

Auditablity/Peer-review

With closed source software, you have nothing but the vendor's claims telling you that they're keeping the software secure and adhering to standards, for example. It's basically a leap of faith. The visibility of the code behind open source software, however, means you can see for yourself and be confident.

Quality

Publicly available source code enables continuous and broad peer review that ensures rigorous security and reliability. Specifically, this process encourages the identification and elimination of defects that might otherwise go unrecognized by a more limited core development team.

• Security
• Innovation
• Interests
• Flexability

Free software licenses do not restrict who can use the software or the endeavors in which the software can be used. This allows us to endlessly reuse existing free software to satisfy new needs quickly and secure substantial cost savings.

• Customizability

The unrestricted ability to modify software source code enables us to respond more rapidly to constantly changing missions and markets, and is critical to our ability to create new tools and keep pace with industry.

Deployment

Free software is particularly suitable for rapid prototyping and experimentation, where the ability to "test drive" the software with minimal costs and administrative delays can be important.

• TCO
• Users
• Mission