From: Rick Moen (rick at domain linuxmafia.com)
Date: Mon 16 Sep 2002 - 23:09:01 IST
Quoting Conor Daly (conor.daly at domain oceanfree.net):
> The big issue here isn't really the money though (even though the money
> prompted the idea of a move). Our organisation has dipped its corporate
> toe in the pure waters of Open Source (Go on Ballygowan, how about
> sponsoring linux!) and I have been and am a strong advocate of OS in the
> organisation. There are those who look a little oddly at me as a
> consequence. If I replace our current, expensive, always working DB with
> something far cheaper that _mostly_ works I might as well wear a sign
> saying "Open Source is crap".
In a corporate environment, that's always the problem, isn't it? If you
so much as mention an open source solution, let alone become identified
as an advocate for such solutions, then any flaws that emerge, even
those owing mostly to unwillingness to give something new a fair shot,
are perceived as your fault. There's no easy solution to this problem:
It seems inherent in organisational thinking.
One approach that sometimes succeeds is the "skunkworks" method: In
spare hours, you design, prototype, and test a PostgreSQL or MySQL-based
setup, trying to see if you can make it satisfy what you anticipate to
be the deployment requirements. After you've made it work well enough,
let management know about it, but don't try to "sell" it to them. Just
rub their faces politely in the fact that there's a plug-and-play
solution sitting right in front of them. Make sure you include some
custom reports with graphs.
Bear in mind that many organisations are willing to learn only the hard
way -- e.g., by spending a few years as an Oracle customer. ;->
But also bear in mind that Sybase or DB2 _might_ be a perfect solution
for your firm's long-term needs. (Maybe your objective should be mostly
to avoid the tragedy of ending up on Oracle or MS SQL Server.)
-- Cheers, "Azathoth need not be present to win." Rick Moen -- Charles O. Baucum, Jr. rick at domain linuxmafia.com
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