Presentation delivered at ObjectWebCon 06. www.flet.fr Middleware is the new frontier for open source and brings opportunities to contain costs, to focus on innovative engineering, to find new sources of revenue and to go to market with unique competitive advantages. Since its inception as a consortium, ObjectWeb can claim a number of successful achievements: it has established itself as a recognized stakeholder in the OSS marketplace; it has developed a strong portfolio of high-quality technologies supported by a number of projects; and it has recruited a variety of high-visibility members from industry, government and academia. With a new organization and an ever growing international impact, ObjectWeb is becoming a premier source of industry grade middleware. The benefits of open standard compliant, production-grade Java middleware is made available to everyone as an alternative, or as a complement, to proprietary solutions. In this presentation, youíll learn how open source players come together to build an ecosystem where users find high quality software and professional services. Case studies of open-source middleware deployed in production in government, healthcare, financial institutions and more will demonstrate that, however hidden, open source middleware is now a mainstream option that you should consider too.

1. ObjectWeb
Middleware the Open Source Way
François LETELLIER – INRIA/ObjectWeb
francois.letellier@objectweb.org
Blog: os3g.blogspot.com
© ObjectWeb 2006
www.objectweb.org

2. Agenda
► Trends in open source
► Open source meeting the business world
► Modularity and business models
► ObjectWeb: a Collective Strategy
► More value for users and members
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 2

3. Trends in Open Source
www.objectweb.org

4. Open Source as of 2002
► Top 3 motivations to participate in OS project
 The code for this project is intellectually stimulating to write
 My activity on this project improves my programming skill
 I believe source code should be open
► 33% « believers », 25% « fun seekers », 21% « skill
enhancers »
21% « professionals »
► 65% do not participate at work, or participation not known by
supervisor
► At this time 33,000 projects on SourceForge. 4 years later, about
110,000Source: The Boston Consulting Group Hacker Survey, Jan 31, 2002
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 4

5. By 2010…
► Open source will compete with closed source in
every infrastructure market
► 75% of mainstream IT shops will have a formal open
source acquisition policy in place
► Mainstream IT shops will consider open source for
80% of their infrastructure software needs
► Mainstream IT shops will consider open source for
25% of their business software needs
Source: Mark Driver, Gartner Research VP, The Gartner Application
www.objectweb.org Development Summit, Sept 2005 F.Letellier – 5

6. a Turning Point
2005: for Open Source
► VC « Gold Rush »
 $400m invested in US startups in 2005 (eg: Funambol)
► OSS Reaches Profitability
 Eg: Red Hat revenue +73%, stock +110% in 2005
► OSS Hits the Legals
 OSS Risk Management software (eg BlackDuck)
► OSS/Open Standards in EC Calls
► China
 will have more developers than the US
 After Linux, turns to open source middleware
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 6

7. Open Source Meeting the
Business World
www.objectweb.org

8. Developers of OSS
► Volunteers, best effort, ► Paid developers, scholars,
work on their spare time work n hrs/day
► Motivated by self- ► Motivated by their paycheck,
fulfillment, intellectual their job description
curiosity
► Bright kids who like ► Software is part of a bigger
technology for the sake of business case and only one
it, OS work is play to them aspect of life
► Digital natives, speed of ► Corporate procedures; NDAs,
light communication legal overhead
► Boost their resume, ► OSS fosters globalization
employability
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 8

9. Open Source Projects
► A healthy project is developed by a ► Code base originates from one
crowd of committers from various organization; companies like to retain
backgrounds control over projects
► Adoption is a grass-root, word-of- ► $10 k/mnth PR budget, need for
mouth phenomenon reference users
► Fuzzy roadmap, wishlist ► Project plan, deliverables
► Right to fork is key to innovation ► Upward compatibility, durability,
stability are key
► Strong, charismatic leaders ► Appointed project managers
► Most adopted projects establish de ► Projects implement de jure standard,
facto standards incompatibilities are a pain
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 9

10. Users of Open Source
► Techno aware, techno ► Corporate IT departments
addicts
► Rebels with a cause ► May hate libertarians
► May fix a bug themselves ► Need a throat to squeeze
► Are well aware that no ► Need 99.9% uptime and 24/7
software is bug free support
► Gut loyalty ► ROI, value for the buck
► Speak English ► Need a localized version
► Long hair, T-shirt ► Suit and tie
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 1 0

11. Open Source Organizations
► Grass roots, self organized ► « Who’s in charge »?
► Meritocracy ► Commit-o-cracy
► IPR is annoyance, naive ► IPR is opportunity for profitable business
« raymondism » models
► License proliferation is evil ► Licenses suited to int’l differences
► « Natural selection » of best projects ► Principles, rules, architectural vision
► Hierachy is flattened, bypassed or ► Official delegations, governmental
ignored incentive, top-down decisions
► Nonprofit, almost Charity ► NPOs are used as smoke screens
► Project ownership, control and rights in ► Companies need to retain control over the
individuals hands projects
► « The community »: brings down ► The customer/supplier paradigm dies hard
barriers between code producers and
consumers
www.objectweb.org F.L etell ier – 11

12. Modularity and Business
Models
www.objectweb.org

13. Benefits of OS Software
from the User Standpoint
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 1 3

14. Cohabitation of Open and Closed
Parts in the Information System
Acrobat Reader PDF C
A C OU NT SR ECEI VBL E
A C C OU N T N O .
A L E D GE R
S HE E T N O .
3rd Party Services
DA T E N
I V O I C E N UMBE R D
/ E S CRP
I TI N
O CH AG E S
R CRE DI S
T BA L A NC
E
BA L A NC E F OR WA RD
Custom Reports
Apple iBooks
24/7 Support SOAP
eXo / SpagoBI
Business Logic ESB
JOnAS SQL
Oracle
Embedded Linux RDBM/S
MySQL
Win NT Ethernet GNU/Linux
Cisco routers
Commodity PC compatibles IBM Mainframe
Proprietary
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 1 4

15. Open Source
and Close Source
Close source
either or
and
Close source Open Source
Open Source
IDEOLOGY REALITY
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 1 5

16. The Fine Line Between
Commodity and Proprietary
Service Service Service Service
Applications Applications Applications Applications
Middleware Middleware Middleware Middleware
Operating System Operating System Operating System
Hardware Hardware
Electronic
Components
Key Enabling Technologies Open Standards Free Competition
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 1 6

17. Understanding Why and How
Users Integrate Open Source
More direct business opportunities
► Reusing open source anonymous users
Stronger involvement
 Cost containment, agility
 Using de facto standard
► Double sourcing Dassault Aviation
 Negotiation power, lock-in avoidance
 Unlimited scalability / hybrid platforms
► Opening in-house developments FT
 Contribute open source code so to
“outsource” maintenance and evolution
 Percolation: outsource all that is not a
competitive advantage
► Shared R+D INRIA
 Flexible platform for collaborative engineering
 Promote technology and standards
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 1 7

18. Business Models
From the OW Ecosystem
► Support and services tied to open source Red Hat
► Aggregating and enhancing XCalia
► Commercialize with dual licenses eXo Platform
► Bait and hook Iona
► Selling added value complements SourceBeat
► Subsystems level lock-in Librados
► Services and consulting Atos Origin, eteration
►< Here: Insert your own >
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 1 8

19. Innovation &Technology
Transfer from Academia
►Share R&D Efforts
 Gather real world needs
 Faster technology transfer
ActiveXML
 Complement of activity in standardization bodies Carol
►Place of Research in the Business Ecosystem C-JDBC
CLIF
 Trust and professionalism
JORAM
 Virtuous cycle Fractal
between fundamental research and industrial applications Rubis
 Global outreach ProActive
www.objectweb.org …
F.Letellier – 1 9

20. Gov’t Public Policies
Economical
Ethical Motivations Motivations
Brazil
China
India Code Public Invitations to Tender
Germany Base Laws & Regulations
France
USA
Spain
Japan
« Open Source »
Korea Exemplarity
UK Prescription Externalities of
Russia Free/Libre/Open-Source
EU
etc… Software
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 2 0

21. ObjectWeb: a Collective
Strategy
www.objectweb.org

22. “Modularization” of
economic activity
As population and economy grow, and
communication and transport cost drop,
functions that were previously better
performed in a hierarchical setting are spun
out into discrete firms
Under such conditions, we might speculate
that appopriability institutions will emerge with
increasing frequency to mediate these
atomizing forces.
Source: « From Medieval Guilds to Open Source Software: Informal Norms,
Appropriability Institutions, and Innovation, » Pr. Robert P. Merges, UC
www.objectweb.org
Berkeley, UC Davis, Nov 13, 2004 F.Letellier – 2 2

23. ObjectWeb: Collaboration and
Collective Innovation
► International
 Incepted 2002 by BULL, France
Telecom and INRIA
 Endorsed by 60 organisations
worldwide (Public & Private, EU, US,
Asia)
 A community of 1800+ individual
members from 80 countries
► Open and Neutral
► Mission  Non-profit Consortium
to develop middleware open  Hosted by INRIA (cf. W3C)
source code and to foster a  Open to all organizations /
vibrant community and individuals
business ecosystem
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 2 3

24. Companies don’t Collaborate
like Individuals
► They act as a buffer between users and the code base:
there lies business opportunities
► Time frame and decision processes
► Need of governance and business case
► Granularity tends to be at the project level
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 2 4

25. Some OW Java Projects
(business intelligence)
Bonita, Shark
Funambol eXo P.
eXo Platform
(workflow, orchestr.)
XWiki
(portal & CMS)
(mobile sync.)
SpagoBI
(wiki, blogs)
Sync4j
XWiki
Eclipse Engineering Bull Eclipse
Web TP SOA TP
Iona EBM WS
Bull
JOnAS Celtix/Petals
(J2EE appserv) (ESB, JBI)
INRIA INRIA
EMIC Bull US
ProActive JOTM Tél.
France C-JDBC
Tribe (Grid) P6
Univ JAC (transactions)
Speedo (RDBMS clust.)
Together
(group comm.) Scalagent
(AOP) Orbeon
(JDO persist.)
INRIA/FT OPS
Octopus FT JORAM XQuare
Fractal (ETL)
ASM (JMS, MOM) XQuare (XML pipelines)
(component mod) (codebyte man.) (XML rewriting)
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 2 5

26. More Value For Users and
Members
www.objectweb.org

27. More Visibility
► Members expectations:
 SME members count on ObjectWeb to gain traction
 Large companies count on ObjectWeb to foster technology adoption
 All members expect ObjectWeb to be more visible
► The paradox: all members expect OW to be more visible, but very
few of them communicate about ObjectWeb
► Challenges:
 Getting more visible without being seen as a software vendor
 Raising awareness in a multi-country, multi-cultural environment
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 2 7

28. Better Packaged Software
► Users expectations:
 Structured code base with clear roadmap
 Integrated platforms with tooling
 Single point of contact for advice and services
 Clear licensing policy
► Members expectations:
 Customer marketing material (reference users, benchmarks,
qualification, compliance certification, …)
► Challenge:
 Shaping the bazaar without competing with our own members
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 2 8

29. Business Opportunities
► Members expectations:
 Proven, actionable, repeatable business models
 Assistance in pre sales effort
 Local business opportunities
► The paradox: members tend to keep ObjectWeb out of the loop once
a business deal is in sight
► Challenges:
 Developing ecosystems without losing focus on technology and without
killing the open source golden goose
 Conflicts of interest between competing members
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 2 9

30. The Future of European and
Asian Information Societies?
OrientWare
 Chinese Program 863 in Middleware
 BeiHang University, Institute of Software, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Nanjing University, National
University of Defense Technology, Peking University
 MoU with ObjectWeb for collaboration
NESSI
 European Technology Platform
 Services in a knowledge-based economy
 7-20 years, 2.5 Billion € (>R$ 6 Billion)
 ObjectWeb 1 of the 13 co-founders
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 3 0

31. ObjectWeb Initiatives
An “initiative” is a collaborative program undertaken
by some ObjectWeb members to promote a set of
technologies and bring them to the mainstream
►market driven as opposed to technology driven
►fosters the development of a business ecosystem
►ESB Initiative
►RFID Initiative
►ONESSI
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 3 1

32. To be continued…
Stay tuned!
www.objectweb.org

33. ObjectWeb’s Future…
Projects
Legal entity
Governance
Initiatives Local Chapters
Members
www.objectweb.org
To be continued… F.Letellier – 3 3

34. A Parting Word…
The crucial battle is not between individual firms but
between networks of firms.
Innovations and operations have become a
collective activity.
The Keystone Advantage: What the New Dynamics of Business Ecosystems Mean for Strategy,
Innovation and Sustainability, M. Iansiti & R. Levien, Harvard Business School Press, 2004
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 3 4

35. Thank you for your attention
Questions
? Le middleware
est partout ?
François LETELLIER – INRIA/ObjectWeb
francois.letellier@objectweb.org
© ObjectWeb 2006
Blog: os3g.blogspot.com
www.objectweb.org F.Letellier – 3 5