Monday 7 July 2014

Open source technology: is it a legitimate model for software vendors?



Increasingly, open source technology is popping up on the IBS radar, with the latest addition to our Risk Management Systems & Suppliers guide, Open Gamma, being a proponent of the open source model. Other notable examples of vendors which have taken this route include Romanian supplier Allevo, which earlier this year launched its open source community, FINkers United, to the public, with access to the code of its qPayintegrator payments platform.

It will be interesting to see how the open source model expands over the coming months and years, and whether it proves to be a viable alternative for gaining revenue (by providing additional consulting services and modules around the core software) as opposed to the traditional licence model.

It also raises the thought-provoking idea of whether it would be viable to build the core of a bank using open source technology. A quick glance at the GitHub open source community shows there are one or two examples of full source codes for a core banking system, with the possibility of using open source platforms such as Red Hat and Linux to run the software. 

Another popular model might be the one adopted by Russia-based CSBI Group, which is attempting to take its old Bankier/Pro development and position it as an open source offering, called ABS.SPO.

IBS will be exploring this issue in more detail in an upcoming issue of the IBS Journal.



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