WORK ABOUT PEOPLE CONTACT OPEN FOR BUSINESS: LEVERAGING THE POWER OF OPEN SOURCE As a business, you’re always looking for ways to innovate. To do things smarter, better, more efficiently. Open-source software may give your company an opportunity to do all of that. If you know how to harness it. Turn On Geek Mode What is Open Source Software? Open-source software (OSS) is simply software whose source code is available for anyone to inspect, modify or enhance. Unlike proprietary or "closed-source" software, OSS is often developed publicly by a diverse group of developers, then released under a specific license stating how it can be used. What are the advantages? Here are a few of the big reasons to consider choosing OSS over proprietary, "off-the-shelf" software: Upfront Costs Open-source software (OSS) and free open-source software (FOSS) have little to zero upfront costs. If it doesn’t suit your needs, you can abandon or modify it without much risk. Community Support OSS often inspires a vibrant community of users and developers to form around it. These folks invest their time and attention to make sure their project thrives and encourage others to join. Security & Stability Since its source code is public, OSS is reviewed and scrutinized by its community. This leads to more secure, stable software without "hidden" issues corporations may try to conceal from users. Flexibility & Control Open source means you can modify software to fit your needs rather than building from scratch. That means more customization and control than you’d usually get with proprietary software. Speed & Efficiency Since OSS is ready to "download-and-go," the acquisition process is much faster. Eliminating licensing fees, purchase orders and contracts can shorten your overall implementation timeline. Innovation & Growth OSS has been called an onramp to the future. Open source projects can provide a gateway to innovation and new opportunities for your business. Turn On Geek Mode What should I look for when considering open-source software? If you’re thinking about implementing an OSS solution for your business, make sure it checks these boxes: Documentation Be sure thorough documentation is available for the software. Great documentation can make it easy to get started and find answers to questions that fit your use case. Community Look for a large community of backers, maintainers and contributors. A strong, active community means better software and a wealth of available information and support in the event of an issue. Licensing Not all OSS licenses are created equal. Some are more permissive in terms of how they can be used. Check the license and its requirements. It could save you a headache down-the-line. Long-term Costs While upfront costs are low, if your open-source solution requires a team or vendor to handle ongoing maintenance and support — that could become a significant long-term investment. Turn On Geek Mode Open-source software at Garrison Hughes At Garrison Hughes, we use OSS throughout our entire development stack. We deploy not only battle-tested projects backed by a strong community, but also exciting new projects with plenty of potential. Here are a few of our Interactive Development team’s most-used OSS: On web projects like RXAnte, a dynamic website with three distinct audiences, having the power to track, review and approve our team’s code changes through Git was invaluable. When Nemacolin Woodlands Resort wanted a dynamic display system to communicate with guests throughout the resort, we built a cloud-based CMS with PHP. WordPress made it simple to include an easy-to-use CMS, downloadable content, social integration, search optimization in Fort Ligonier’s new website. After extensive usability testing with site stakeholders, React gave us the tools we needed to create an optimal user experience (UX) on the Nova Chemicals website. The online training system we built for The Children’s Institute needed ecommerce integration, strong security and flexibility. MySQL was the right tool for the job. Confluence Financial Partners needed a secure site to protect high-net-worth clients’ information. Linux gave us the platform to build a powerful new server architecture with enhanced security. Vagrant allowed us to reproduce the same environment as our live server environments, dramatically reducing the development and testing time needed to build the Vincent Payment Solutions website. Turn On Geek Mode Leveraging open source Increasingly, OSS has become the industry standard. Even tech giants like Microsoft are releasing some of their biggest products to the public. As the meteoric rise of OSS continues, more businesses will move toward this "bleeding-edge" of technology to be more innovative, cost-effective, agile and secure. Will you be one of them? Interested in how we can make open source work for you? Let’s talk. FIRST NAME* LAST NAME* EMAIL* HOW CAN WE HELP?* OTHER STUFF YOU MIGHT LIKE NOVA CHEMICALS WEBSITE PARDOT THE INTERRUPTION GET CLOSER TO YOUR INTERACTIVE CREATIVE INTERACTIVE MEDIA STRATEGY CASE STUDIES GH DESIGN PEOPLE ABOUT US CONTACT CAREERS HUBBUB FOLLOW US GH info@garrisonhughes.com First & Market Building 100 First Avenue, Suite 200 Pittsburgh, PA 15222 412.338.0123 GH DESIGN info@garrisonhughes.design USX Tower 600 Grant Street, 57th Floor Pittsburgh, PA 15219 412.864.4279