Artūras Milašauskas, Head of Sales at Novian Technologies
As an apologist of open-source systems, I usually talk about its openness, dynamism, and being a de facto standard for any digital innovation platform. However, in my experience, when using such technology, organisations tend to make mistakes, which eliminate its advantages and are also expensive.
What are those mistakes and how to avoid them? Let us look at some of the most common.
Plan product support costs and measures
Usually, everything starts with the expectation that products built on open-source technology will have zero support costs because the open-source community develops all of its components, which are open to use and cost nothing. In truth, however, the community makes no commitment and all the associated risks have to be managed by the company itself.
This means that it has to take care to update the components in a timely manner and ensure their compatibility, and, sometimes, even to develop the components themselves (when the component developed by the community no longer meets the company’s needs). This is a manageable task, but it does cost money.
Moreover, developing products and using them are two separate things, requiring different competencies and areas of experience.
It is therefore advisable to make the decision to have a budget line for open-source platform support right at the outset and hire professionals to do the job.
Get partners involved in its development
If you do not have a technology partner that takes care of your organisation’s digital services platform, consider finding one.
Assess the candidates’ experience, the amount and type of systems they serve, and who their partners are.
Then, in the early stages of planning to develop a new product, consult with your chosen partner. Will they be able to take responsibility and have the capacity to ensure the support this product requires? Perhaps they will offer alternatives or point to the components that are risky to use?
In cases like that, it makes sense to go with the open-source platform provider that maintains, develops, and services these systems. Moreover, such companies have another crucial advantage, namely the filter of quality assurance. This means that every open-source component incorporated into the system is checked, ensuring it is compatible and adequately supported.
Assess how critical each IT infrastructure component is
Identify which components of your organisation’s IT eco-system ensure technological stability and require very high reliability, and where, by contrast, platforms from external partners can do the job.
This will allow you to stabilise your services platform, which, in turn, will allow your software developers to develop components that ensure technological components more freely, securely, and faster, as well as providing them with extra confidence to develop and implement new services.
Should any mistakes occur in the new services, it will be easier to identify and fix them, and a stable technological platform will serve as a perimeter wall of a fortress, preventing these mistakes from spreading into the rest of the system.
And the technological partner’s infrastructure support specialists will function as a link that helps integrate these new services and products into one common system and makes sure they work properly.
Choosing to go this route will facilitate a faster implementation of new digital services in your organisation’s digital services platform in response to the growing needs of your business, and its support budget will be easier to predict and offer up no unpleasant surprises.
How organisations may benefit from working with Novian Technologies
Novian Technologies is an IT infrastructure services company active in Lithuania and numerous other countries, which focuses on new technological opportunities for businesses and the public sector, with an emphasis on the smooth functioning IT economy and keeping its infrastructure in step with the latest technological advances.
We offer consultations to organisations planning to integrate open-source systems in their IT infrastructure. We help assess how critical each infrastructure component is and plan for IT architecture modifications, open-source system integration, and hybrid system support and development costs.
Once we have a clear idea of what the client needs, we plan the IT infrastructure architecture, implement the required technology, and maintain the IT infrastructure.
Novian Group offers a package of IT services
Novian Technologies is part of Novian Group, whose companies provide technological, software, digitization, and complex set of solutions and services in these fields of IT. The Group’s companies are based in the Baltics, Norway, and Moldova, to serve clients and implement projects across the globe. Between 2016 and 2021, the projects implemented by Novian Group companies spanned more than 50 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and America.
