SlashTCO.com: Open source proves winning ticket for Just Sports USA.com

[ Thanks to Russ
Foster for this link. ]

“Call him a player, a gambler, a true risk taker, but he’s not a
fool. Ron Lazarus, chief operating officer at Woodland Hills,
California-based Just Sports placed a bet that could cost him
thousands of dollars when he approved the use of open source
applications and tools to create his company’s new transactional
database management system. But it would prove one of the smartest
business decisions he’s ever made. In addition to saving money by
using a database powered by PostgreSQL (popularly known as
Postgres) and Apache servers running on a Linux operating system,
Just Sports USA created a powerful open source infrastructure that
is customisable to meet the company’s evolving needs.”

“At first, the prospect of using a free, open source database
application called PostgreSQL that they’d never heard of confused
Just Sports USA. That’s not an uncommon reaction among
corporations. The “free for all” mentality of the open-source
community flies in the face of most business models. When most
businesses learn that PostgreSQL developers enhance and de-bug the
program as part of an ongoing volunteer collaborative effort, and
that no one actually owns the software, they usually shake their
heads and ask, “Why would anyone in their right mind do that?”

“In short, open source developers are driven by a desire to
produce better software. Which, in the end, is what business really
needs. Open source software is a viable alternative to expensive
proprietary solutions, and the money businesses save by using it
can be invested in enhanced hardware, additional programming, or
some other aspect of their business altogether. And, of course,
they can always add their savings onto the bottom line; after all,
money saved usually equals more profit.”

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