Recent emphasis on cloud technologies has brought a lot of attention to how software companies work in today’s business and technical environments. Some companies have chosen to try to protect their software through creative licenses. Unlike open source, where value is placed on community, collaboration, and services, open core businesses place their value on software features. Red Hat’s successful experience as a completely open source company has shown that value is not in the code, but in the support and expertise by being a part of a true community. In this talk, Red Hat’s Deb Bryant will share observations and cautionary tales from the world’s most successful open source company on how the idea of open core has time and again been demonstrated to not be truly open, limits community innovation, and delivers essentially proprietary software to customers

1. Creating Authentic Value: Open Source vs. Open Core
Recent emphasis on cloud technologies has brought a lot of attention to how
software companies work in today’s business and technical environments.
Some companies have chosen to try to protect their software through
creative licenses. Unlike open source, where value is placed on community,
collaboration, and services, open core businesses place their value on
software features. Red Hat’s successful experience as a completely open
source company has shown that value is not in the code, but in the support
and expertise by being a part of a true community. In this talk, Red Hat’s Deb
Bryant will share share observations and cautionary tales from the world’s
most successful open source company on how the idea of open core has
time and again been demonstrated to not be truly open, limits community
innovation, and delivers essentially proprietary software to customers

2. Creating Authentic Value:
Open Source vs. Open Core
Deborah Bryant
Sr. Director, Open Source Program Office

3. What is Red Hat’s
business model?

4. It’s not open source.
(And never has been.)

5. Red Hat is an enterprise software
company that uses open source as its
development methodology.

6. Red Hat provides customers with
support, training, and innovation for
open source-developed software.

7. Saying “commercial open source software”
is like saying “salsa sauce.”

8. Here’s how Red Hat derives value from open source.
Community growth
Strong communities keep our product lines stable.
Community participation
We help make it, so we can support it.
Diverse innovation
Broad set of global talent sparks immense creativity.
Rapid development cycles
Communities can support faster cadences.

9. Commitment to open source
It’s all open from project to product.
Continuity of leadership
ICs to managers to execs all believe in the Red Hat way.
Consistency of strategy
The Open Decision Framework is not just a buzz phrase..buzzword.
Can there be another Red Hat?

10. So is open source hard?

11. What about open core?

12. “The open-core model primarily involves offering
a ‘core’ or feature-limited version of a software
product as free and open-source software, while
offering ‘commercial’ versions or add-ons as
proprietary software.”
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-core_model

13. Things that bring pause
about open core

14. Things that bring pause about open core contributors
Participation is Constrained
By definition, avenues of innovation will be
blocked, because an open core company will not
want to enable contributors to add new features
that match the software’s “premium” features.

15. Things that bring pause about open core contributors
Participation is Constrained
By definition, avenues of innovation will be
blocked, because an open core company will not
want to allow contributors to add new features
that match the software’s “premium” features.
Community is Devalued
“... [W]e didn’t open source [MongoDB] to get
help from the community, to make the product
better. We open sourced as a freemium strategy;
to drive adoption.” - MongoDB CEO Dev
Ittycheria, June 2019
Source: https://www.cbronline.com/interview/mongodb-ceo-interview

16. Things that bring pause about open core contributors
Participation is Constrained
By definition, avenues of innovation will be
blocked, because an open core company will not
want to allow contributors to add new features
that match the software’s “premium” features.
Community is Devalued
“... [W]e didn’t open source [MongoDB] to get
help from the community, to make the product
better. We open sourced as a freemium strategy;
to drive adoption.” - MongoDB CEO Dev
Ittycheria, June 2019
Vendor Lock-In
Premium features, like any proprietary software,
increases the aspect of vendor lock-in for
customers.
Source: https://www.cbronline.com/interview/mongodb-ceo-interview

17. Participation is Constrained
By definition, avenues of innovation will be
blocked, because an open core company will not
want to allow contributors to add new features
that match the software’s “premium” features.
Community is Devalued
“... [W]e didn’t open source [MongoDB] to get
help from the community, to make the product
better. We open sourced as a freemium strategy;
to drive adoption.” - MongoDB CEO Dev
Ittycheria, June 2019
Vendor Lock-In
Premium features, like any proprietary software,
increases the aspect of vendor lock-in for
customers.
Deployment Constrained
Customers are either forced to pay with licenses
like SSPL, or forbid use of any “hybrid license”
product for fear of unsanctioned licenses
entering a business IT environment.
Source: https://www.cbronline.com/interview/mongodb-ceo-interview
Things that bring pause about open core contributors

18. Take aways

19. Don’t fear open source.

20. Save yourself the trouble,
just go proprietary.

21. Don’t confuse open core
with open source.

22. facebook.com/redhatcommunity
twitter.com/RedHatOpen
Red Hat’s Open Source Program Office is
passionate about, and dedicated to, providing
business-useful insights into community
management and success for our fellow Red Hat
associates and the entire open source ecosystem.
Thank you