Opensource Software - Paid vs Self-Support

When it comes to Opensource software - especially the operating system and related software - the question that is top of mind for everyone these days is - Why do I need to pay these big companies for support? It is Opensource anyways and I have enough talent in house to self support.

When businesses review their support costs, some of the questions that come up for operating systems and related support costs are:

- I paid ‘$x’ for support, however we hardly used support and made just few support calls or hardly raised any support tickets. So why should we continue paying for support?

- What ‘value’ are we getting for the dollars we are spending? or going to spend?

- My own staff is more than competent to manage the environment and support needs…why should we pay a support provider?

- Our model is changing and we are moving to cloud…do we then need one more support provider? My cloud provider will provide the required support for my entire stack

- Can someone provide a cost analysis or a data/model on ‘Paid support vs self support’?

Well - there are no easy answers, however let me try and breakdown some of the things you should consider if you are running a business:

What does ‘Paid support’ get me?

The minimum table stakes

- 24/7 support - these days most businesses run 24/7…they do not shut down during weekends.

- Support should be - ‘follow the sun model’ - You need support round the clock.

- Unlimited calls for support, patches etc.

- Easy access to all patches and upgrades

- Access to all knowledge base

- Cook books and best practices

- Access to all previous versions of the software, including bug fixes and patches

- Well defined SLA’s and response times

Apart from the minimum table stakes you should also look for:

- 100% indemnification against 3rd party claims

- A complete and comprehensive ecosystem:

- An extensive list of partner network (ISV’s and IHV’s) supporting the product

- A good reliable team of engineers - A team that contributes to the opensource and is also on standby for any sustained support requirements

- A team that tests the product and patches they develop against the whole stack

-Do they test it themselves or do they only ‘prey’ on opensources?

- Compliance - Are they FIPS, NIAP compliant? Do they have industry specific compliance - PCI, HIPAA etc…

Now lets see if if we can find some answers to the questions that we raised:

- “I paid ‘$x’ for support, however we hardly used support…”

I recently went through an exercise of choosing health insurance for myself and family…and a similar question came up - we pay “$x” every year, however we hardly use health services or visit the doctors office!

Reality is - support for Opensource software (specially O/S and related software) is like paying for insurance. Some people think it is critical and others feel it is a ‘money grab’

So the question you need to answer here is - Can my business live without the ‘insurance’ and safety net?

- “What ‘value’ are we getting for the dollars…”

To answer this question - you will have to take into consideration the worst case scenario - What is the downtime cost to my business?

The obvious example that comes to mind is the windows patching fiasco that happened recently - a ‘simple’ patch caused widespread disruption to our day-to-day lives when hundreds and thousands of screens went blank across the globe. In such scenarios we should be seeking answers to the ‘value’ question. Is my support provider willing to do these things -

- Test the patch completely before releasing it? Test the patch up and down the stack and across workloads

- Provide a patching service to patch without disrupting the workloads? Also known as ‘in memory’ patching. Is that service/tool tried and tested?

- Provide a mechanism to ‘roll-back’ the patch if it breaks something?

- Take full responsibility and ownership of the patches they provide and sign a comprehensive warranty and liability agreement?

- Have a team of engineers on standby for anything that might still go wrong - to meet your support SLA’s and sustained support

There are some very good support service providers that are willing to provide this huge value for the $ you pay…so choose wisely.

Now let's take a look at the “Cost analysis or a data/model on ‘Paid support vs self support’” before going to support on cloud.

When it comes to “self-support” - most people ignore certain aspects of self support . There are multiple factors you need to consider:

- Your FTE (Full time employee) cost or cost of staff you have deployed in house for supporting this opensource software. Please remember - you need 24/7 support - so your cost should reflect that accordingly - your nearshore expenses or offshore expenses etc.

- Management cost

- Your infrastructure cost - server cost etc

- Some assumptive cost for your potential downtime - you may not have any, however there is an element of risk and you have to account for it.

Now lets look at paid support

- Your direct cost of support - $$ you are paying your support provider

Some are common costs -

Cost of employees - will reduce with paid support. Management cost will also reduce, while Infrastructure cost remains same in both scenarios

Your cost of risk comes down considerably with paid support - since you have the ‘insurance’ cover with a 3rd party support provider

If you are to create a simple spreadsheet and input real values against each the above - you will see the results i.e over a period of 3 years - you will start seeing significant savings with paid support. In the short run - 1-2 years - you will see a reduction in your opex with self support, however it raises significantly in 3+ years analysis.

Now the most pertinent “Cloud” question.

When it comes to cloud - it is an extension of your IT infrastructure - someone else is managing it with SLA’s etc. So the question then becomes - do I bring my own support to cloud or run my infrastructure based on what my cloud provider is suggesting. Again in cloud you have various options to choose from - free to wide range of paid support. All the reasoning we did for “paid vs free” is applicable to cloud as well…not just your on-prem infrastructure.

Final thoughts - Choose the best “health coverage” that meets your business needs and fits in your IT budget - there are plenty of support providers out there for Opensource software. That said, be sure to CHOOSE one…you will eventually need that safety net!