BANGALORE, INDIA: With the onset of global slowdown, a lot of companies were reported to have moved to open source software from proprietary options like Microsoft, to save the upfront costs. But Microsoft could retain a chunk of customers, because, according to them, they found that sole open source software solutions fail to bring long-term cost saving.

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Speaking to CIOL, Pallavi Kathuria, director, server business group, Microsoft India said that  though some customers were making drastic switches to alternative technology like commercial open source software options such as Linux, they were also realizing the hidden costs in it.

Citing excerpts from reports, she said industry analysts warned that IT decision markers often overlooked key cost factors.

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"It is important for IT and business decision makers to evaluate and assess the long-term total cost of ownership (TCO) for technology investments. Gartner predicts that over the next four years, 50 per cent of mainstream IT projects using OSS will not achieve cost savings. According to it, through 2013, 50 per cent of mainstream IT projects using OSS will not achieve cost savings over closed-source alternatives," she said.

Furthermore, As IDC estimates, acquisition costs for software turn out to be just a fraction of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), averaging only about seven per cent of the total cost over three years. On an average, 68 per cent of a three year TCO consists of staffing and training costs, and another 15 per cent consists of expenses related to downtime."

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A voice of disagreement
In contrast, Rahul De, Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor in ICT for Sustainable Economic Development at IIM Bangalore had recently presented a few case studies in BFSI, education, manufacturing and welfare, where a company saved around Rs 490 million by introducing FOSS in their 3500 server and 30,000 desktops. Based on some statistics, he measured that the country could save around Rs 101 million even if 50 per cent of the PCs countrywide adopt FOSS.

According to the Redmond-based firm, more and more customers and open source partners felt that deploying new open source software solutions on existing Microsoft platforms brings best value. The company feels that their interoperability drive is doing the right magic in customer retention and satisfaction.

This shows as the company has developed a family of developers and is increasingly roping in more members through their interoperability drive.
Kathuria informed that there are an estimated 1.2 million developers in India in 2009-10, of which approximately 750,000 are on Microsoft platform.

"We also estimate that about 350,000 developers work with all platforms and technologies, depending on what the projects and customers demand. This number has been growing annually at about 30 per cent. IDC data suggests that the IT market will drive creation of nearly 7000 new businesses in the next four years, which will fuel this developer growth."

She added, "Developers want technologies that are cutting edge - that help them innovate and build solutions that would eventually help them make money. Microsoft delivers to these needs of the community. In fact, statistics show that for every dollar earned by Microsoft, partners make $8 (Source: IDC).  In the changing environment which is fast moving towards heterogeneity, developers are also under pressure to develop applications that are interoperable and deliver industry benefit."