CrownPeak supports the Open Source software movement. In fact, we use many open source products and tools as part of our service. Cost-conscious customers sometimes compare us CrownPeak to open source software products. We actually like that comparison, because we are a far superior solution to open source alternatives. However, we like this comparison, because, CrownPeak is much more cost-effective, and is and is a better superior option for customized requirements. So, if the strengths of open source products are cost-effectiveness and customization, how does CrownPeak’s service win in those areas?
Cost Effectiveness
There is often no licenseinge fee for open source software. It’s great to save on the license, but a license fee is typically only about 15% to 25% of the cost of owning a software application. The cost of the engineers to implement, customize, and then, over time, change, upgrade, and integrate the software, is typically the largest portion of cost., It makesing up between 40% and 70% of the total cost of ownershipowning the software.
The final component is the hardware, hosting, network management, bandwidth, backups, security management, and disaster recovery component, which can be termed, “Hardware, network and security management”. This cost segment is typically between 15% and 30% of the cost of owning an application.
In the end, saving money on the software license is good, but it really only decreases the cost of ownership by about 15% to 25%. A software service like CrownPeak is typically 50% or less the cost of an installed application, which beats open source hands-down.
Customization
There are occasions where an organization has truly unique requirements and needs software that has never been created before. Because the software industry is becoming increasingly mature, flexible applications to perform most business functions exists already. In the rare case that nothing exists in the market, or the somewhat less-rare case where the existing applications are very expensive, the options are to start from scratch and write custom software, or to see if there is an open source application that can be modified to meet those requirements.
The very words, “open source,” mean that the original, uncompiled source code for an application is available to anybody who would like to use it – and is willing to follow the rules of the license. Unfortunately, modifying source code for an application has two major drawbacks. First, when the original application is upgraded or changed the modified version often can’t be upgraded to fix security holes and bugs, or to take advantage of new features, because of the customizations. Second, modifications to an existing application are often complex, prone to delays and will tend to be difficult to further-modify over time.
CrownPeak is built to be customized. Because we have done so many projects and manage so many sites for so many companies, chances are, we’ve already built the customization you require. If we haven’t, though, we most likely will. Because we are a software service, we can build in new pieces, release them during a project cycle, and then support those new application pieces from then on. It’s the perfect solution – and it’s included in our standard fees.
For more information on the advantages of the Software Service model, including a discussion on Risk, take a look at our Software Services Advantage White Paper.
