Start-up to create open source harmony

A start-up headed by former Marimba CEO Kim Polese is hoping to be the one-stop-shop that companies turn to as they expand the use of open source applications in their data centers.

Called SpikeSource , the company was founded in 2003 to test and certify stacks - or integrated packages - of open source software and then provide support and maintenance for them. Earlier this month, SpikeSource announced the general availability of its Core Stack, which includes seven preconfigured packages that integrate more than 50 open source components on six operating systems - including Linux and Windows - in six programming languages.

"Our focus is to make open source safe for the enterprise," Polese says. "We're doing that through solving one of the biggest problems that has emerged in using open source in production environments: interoperability. . . . What's really missing [in open source] is that centralized integration, or productization - what we see in proprietary software."

SpikeSource automates the time-consuming task of ensuring that the hundreds of different combinations of software components - both open source and proprietary - work together. Today, most companies do this manually.

"We're getting fan mail from companies saying, 'What used to take me days now takes me minutes,'" Polese says.

SpikeSource uses a "testing harness" that was two years in the making to test across the possible combinations of software components, operating systems and language run times. The company runs more than 22,000 tests each day across the stacks to identify interoperability issues and apply appropriate fixes, Polese says.

The Core Stack is free and can be downloaded and installed from here . The company also offers four levels of support, each of which includes an update service. Basic Installation Support is based on 30 days of assistance and includes technical support installing and configuring open source components, priced at $795 per year; SpikeSource Silver Support, which adds incident-based support with a one-business-day response time, is priced at $10,000 per year; and SpikeSource Gold Support, which offers a four-hour response time, 24/7 phone support and is aimed at mission-critical deployments, is priced at $25,000 per year.

Companies in growing numbers are looking beyond Linux to bring in open source versions of middleware such as application servers and databases. The trouble they often face is that integrating the middleware pieces can be tricky, not only because of interoperability issues, but also because of questions around licensing and intellectual property as open source is combined with current legacy applications, analysts say.

A Forrester Research survey of 140 North American firms last year found that 46% of respondents use open source software and 14% have plans to bring open source into their data centers. But 39% of the respondents said they had no plans for open source software and said that lack of skills and support were the primary inhibitors.