HP has announced a new software governance initiative to assist companies who want to adopt open source software. Many companies are afraid of facing legal, financial and security risks by switching to open source software, but through FOSSology and FOSSbazaar this should be a thing of the past (FOSS; Free and Open Source Software). These are based on HP’s own tools and experience in managing open source software, designed to help in the deployment of open source software.
”Traditional corporate policies for managing software assets are often inadequate to address the unique characteristics of free and open source software. During a recent customer engagement, for example, HP discovered three times as many FOSS licenses as the client originally thought it held – 75 versus 25. This left the customer with a choice: implement governance policies to allow the safe use of FOSS or replace the software at an estimated cost of $80 million.”
FOSSology holds the tools and aims ”to build a community to facilitate the study of Free and Open Source Software by providing free data analysis tools.” While FOSSBazaar is a cooperation with the community and The Linux Foundation, where you will also find resources, documention and community interaction with Coverity, DLA Piper, Google, Novell, Olliance Group, OpenLogic and SourceForge.
Additionally to FOSSology and FOSSbazaar, HP has also launched HP Open Source Heath Check;
- Open Source Management (Governance) Workshop guides cross-organizational audiences through issues managing open source in the enterprise;
- Open Source Exploration Service uses the HP FOSSology tool to discover open source components in legacy applications;
- Open Source Governance Assessment Service provides a gap analysis of existing open source management practices and industry best practices, with recommendations to address the gaps;
- Open Source Total Cost of Ownership Analysis Service uses an HP-developed model to assess the cost benefits of moving to FOSS.
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