Today, Docker or Kubernetes are obvious choices. But, back in 2015, these technologies were just emerging and hoping for massive adoption. How do tech companies make the right open source technology choices early?

Open source software (OSS) just celebrated its 20th anniversary and not only does the community have a lot of milestones to celebrate, but also a lot to which they can look forward! OSS continues to disrupt the status quo in groundbreaking ways, but it’s also becoming increasingly mainstream. Thus, if you’re an IT leader of any-sized organization, you should be thinking about and planning for how to incorporate OSS into your infrastructure.

In 1998, Netscape decided to release their source code in an effort to attract new users to their product and new developers who could easily integrate applications with the browser. At the same time, there seemed to be a groundswell around a culture of open and collaborative development, with legacy software companies beginning to acknowledge Linux and open source software (OSS) as a legitimate option for enterprise solutions.

When it comes to solutions for the big data sector, there is a clear split between the legacy and next-generation approaches to software development. Legacy vendors in this space generally have their own large internal development organizations, dedicated to building proprietary, bespoke software. It’s an approach that has worked well over the years.