Weighing Open Source Management Tools Vs. Propriet

Sharon Smith writes “To date, “open source versus proprietary” discussions have focused pretty narrowly on acquisition cost / comparison and TCO. But according to a recent InfoWorld blog by GroundWork Open Source CEO, Ranga Rangachari, we’re going to start hearing more about the feature set give-and-take between open source versus proprietary management tools. Some organizations will continue to be willing to pay for very expensive IT management tools that include features they don’t use. Others will deploy “just enough” open source IT management tools that perform the vast majority of the same functions just as well — but do not include that last percentage of features — or the hefty price-tag. Part of building the business case for open source management tools is weighing just how critical those ‘nice to have’ features are, versus the enormous cost savings of going the open source route.”