Does Open Source Software Matter In The Cloud Era?

There is an increasingly common refrain I keep hearing from startups. These young companies, with their generally un-original software products, claim that its solution is just like except open source. Don’t get me wrong. I like open source as much as the next guy but, from a value proposition standpoint, just being “open source” doesn’t sound all that compelling to me. This has become especially true in the emerging cloud computing landscape where APIs and Big Data have become some of the most valuable currencies.