South Africa, Brazil, China, Spain, India and Malaysia are all countries that have committed to Open Source Strategies.
It's been just over a year since government announced it's commitment to Open Source. The wheels in government do however turn somewhat slower than industry. Proprietary software will need to be demonstrably, significantly superior. This will not preclude the use of proprietary software, but it will most certainly call for an adjustment of the sales pitch.
If in fact government does ever get around to enforcing this strategy, it would place Xen at the front of the queue when it comes to virtualization. "But Xensource isn't Xen" I hear the VMware guy at the back of the room say. Absolutely true, however the directive asks for software "based" on open standards and the distinction between VMware and Xensource is that XenSource is openly based on open standards. VMware could chime up "VMware is based on a 2.4 Red Hat kernel" (3.02 was although I think they were trying to go to a 2.6 Kernel?). Citrix does arguably have the upper hand as they are currently part funding open source Xen. Additionally having a mixed Xen and Xensource environment could work for government departments, Xen for dev/test and low end stuff, Xensource for production/ high end stuff.
VMware is going to have to get their skates on to counter this threat or they will see Xen/Xensource eating into their markets. On the other hand the South African government is already using VMware in anger - I should know I've worked on a couple of their projects. This in itself is to VMware's advantage as they are a known entity.
The importance of the public sector should not be underestimated. Many government departments have large budgets assigned to them on a use it or lose it basis; a good proposal at the right time can land you in the pound seats. Additionally there is a significant skills feed through from public to private sector. It is especially true in smaller markets that the more mainstream the skills become the greater the market share that vendor acquires. A market as large as the UK for instance sustains more players; the developing world has too small a skills base to sustain the same number or variety of products.
The hostilities between have only just begun, what this space!
Background Notes:
"Cape Town | ITWeb, 22 February 2007 ] - Government today committed to open source implementation within its departments. It also delivered several other statements concerning ICT.
At the Cabinet media briefing in Parliament today, government said it had approved a policy and strategy for open source implementation. It added that all new software developed for, or by government, will be based on open standards, and government will migrate current software to open source."This strategy will, among other things, lower administration costs and enhance local IT skills," said the Cabinet statement.Cabinet spokesman Themba Maseko said, in reply to a question, that the process would probably be a lengthy one. He noted that a project office would be set up by April, by the Department of Science and Technology, with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and the State IT Agency.The Cabinet statement said all major IT vendors in the country have supported the initiative and made contributions to the development of open source."
South African government policy:
FOSS - Free and Open Source Software
1) The South African Government will implement FOSS unless proprietary software is demonstrated to be significantly superior. Whenever the advantages of FOSS and proprietary software are comparable FOSS will be implemented when choosing a software solution for a new project. Whenever FOSS is not implemented, then reasons must be provided in order to justify the implementation of proprietary software.
2) The South African Government will migrate current proprietary software to FOSS whenever comparable software exists.
3) All new software developed for or by the South African Government will be based on open standards, adherent to FOSS principles, and licensed using a FOSS license where possible.
4) The South African Government will ensure all Government content and content developed using Government resources is made Open Content, unless analysis on specific content shows that proprietary licensing or confidentiality is substantially beneficial.
5) The South African Government will encourage the use of Open Content and OpenStandards within South Africa.