Or: the advantages of open source and Linux
A business owner called me two weeks ago. He wanted to talk to me about (the future of) his automation. Great, of course!
He told me that he used to have his own server in-house, but at some point in the past that server was thrown out and since then almost everything had been housed in the cloud of an American company. He only had two industry-specific software packages running in-house.
Typing a note? In the cloud. Saving a note? In the cloud. Email? In the cloud. Spreadsheet? In the cloud. Everything in the office was in subscription form by the same company, 365 days a year. He was on cloud nine.
The surprise
That cloud unpleasantly surprised him with the announcement that the subscription would become considerably more expensive. And then he realized that he had become very dependent on that cloud and that one company. They had him in a tight spot.
This is actually exactly the scenario I am trying to warn you about. You do not want to become too dependent on one party. In the short term, you will not be able to adapt quickly as a company. But there are more advantages to bring your automation more to you and using open source solutions:
- Full control
You have full control over the system and the software you run. You can adjust everything to your wishes without limitations from external services, and you can go to multiple parties for this.
- Privacy and security
You have control over your data and who has access to it. You are less dependent on others who can share, sell or leak your data. On paper, you probably get similar guarantees from the cloud, but how do you know for sure? Of course, all your data is sent using secure connections. But somewhere in the cloud, something has to be done with your data, which is impossible without decrypting your data. You can never be sure what exactly happens to your data, because you are not allowed to view the source code of your cloud provider. Who guarantees you a (foreign) government does not have access to your data? Laws, regulations and governments can change. Also those that relate to your cloud provider.
- Cost savings
In the long term, the costs of in-house automation can be lower than paying for subscriptions to cloud services or external parties.
- No vendor lock-in
You are not tied to the services and conditions and rates of an external party. You can easily change technology or software without affecting your complete automation. Terms and rates may seem attractive now, but they can just as easily change in the future. By then they already have you on board. Exactly the situation of that business owner who called me two weeks ago.
- Flexibility
You can customize the software, configurations and settings of open source to your liking. This gives you the opportunity to do exactly what you need.
- Better performance
For your own server, you can choose the hardware that suits your needs and optimize the performance for your use.
- Own backups
You have control over your own backups and can make them in your own way, with your own encryption and on your own schedule. This provides extra security for your data.
- No restrictions from third parties
You are not dependent on the limitations or availability of your external supplier. If your cloud provider decides to perform maintenance on the systems, you have to accept that, whether it suits you at that moment or not.
- Ability to run multiple services
You can run multiple software and services on the same server, such as email, websites, databases, etc. This gives you the ability to manage an entire infrastructure.
The future
What about the caller with whom this story began? Together we worked out a plan to become a lot less dependent on his current supplier. That certainly won’t happen overnight. But it had become painfully clear to him that putting all his eggs in the same basket is not a good idea for his company.
As a basis, we set up a NAS on Linux on which the company data can be stored and edited. Backups of this are stored encrypted outside the door. From now on, notes and spreadsheets will be made with LibreOffice, an open source program that can also open the existing notes and spreadsheets. Exchanging data with other parties who still work in the cloud is no problem.
The next step is to setup the company’s email using open source under Linux. Of course, it will still be possible to send and receive emails to and from parties that do not work on open source.
We will determine the steps after that together in consultation. Eventually he will be on cloud nine again!