Why We Choose to Open Source Our Software and Platform...

I have been constantly asked the same questions lately, why did we choose to open source our software and platform? The answer is as simple as we are revolutionizing the network management and optimisation sector... although that is not what you want to know, isn't it?

Let's look at the telecoms market, are there any open source network management and optimisation platform currently available? Not really, there are a few bits and pieces here and there but no complete solution available as open source.

Will it ever become a trend? Will it be acceptable by network professionals? The answer to that... is... what do you think? Will you use our open source platforms and solutions? Considering there is ZERO CAPEX and very low TCO.

Now look at Telecoms in general, open source software is becoming the hottest thing in telecoms. Think Google's Android, think of the various mobile OS based on Linux... think of the software that runs on several hardware... So YES, open source is now in telecoms. Open Source actually started in Telecoms back in '69, it was called Open System then...

Now back to our own set of reasoning. In the past we pioneered automatic frequency planning and now technology have move on so rapidly that 2G is now primitive. So we decided if we wanted to give something new to the telecoms market (as we did in the past) we should give something that will stay longer and be used wider than an AFP and at the same time solve the issues most companies face today with proprietary software. How do we do that?

It is very simple... a complete change of mind set and thinking coupled with a hybrid business model. Here's the reason why we went open source
* give total freedom to users who can create their own applications on our platform
* ensure that customer specific processes and applications remain with the customer; it's their intellectual property after all
* allow other entities to benefit from our platform, especially independent telecom professionals and small engineering services companies
* low total cost of ownership (TCO) since there is no CAPEX and support/upgrade services are much lower

There are a few more reasons but if I tell you then we will have to hire you :-)