The Packet Scoop

As a commercial vendor you probably think we want to take Linus Torvalds to the woodshed and smack the crap out of him. You probably think that we believe that open source developers and the open source community is a collection of loosely connected cowboys that are impeding on our god given right to milk as much money out of companies as possible. You probably think that we’ve aligned with Microsoft to appease the open source community but at the same time view it as one of those nasty itches that won’t seem to go away. Well, you’re right……just kidding. You’re actually wrong.

Not many commercial vendors support the open source community because they feel it takes away market share and revenue producing opportunities. We, at PacketTrap, don’t believe that to be the case. In fact, we believe that any network management implementation probably requires a collection of open source and commercial products. If you buy that argument, then it just seems to us that commercial network management vendors need to seamlessly integrate with open source solutions. This is one of the foundations of our business.

Over the next several weeks we will release a white paper (position paper) on our impressions of open source software for network management. I think you’ll be surprised to learn how large of supporters of open source we are and how tightly integrated with open source our solutions will be. To that end, we invite you to join us at SharkFest, the open source Wireshark (Ethereal) Developer Conference. With over 20,000 downloads per month, Wireshark is the worlds most popular packet analyzer. You can register for the event at http://www.cacetech.com/SHARKFEST.08/.

Below is an excerpt of our open source position paper.

In the meantime, Linus is safe (for now)…see you at SharkFest!

Steve

“The use of open source software has become increasingly popular in production environments, as well as in research and software development. One obvious attraction is the low cost of acquisition. Commercial software has a higher initial cost, though it usually has advantages such as support and training. A number of commercial vendors today use open source software as a central component of their product or service, but layer on proprietary components to add value. These companies are called Proprietary Open Source Software (POSS) providers.

There’s general agreement that software initiatives fit into one of three categories: open source projects (i.e., mySQL, various Linux projects, Nagios, OpenNMS), traditional software vendors (i.e. PacketTrap), and, as mentioned, POSS vendors (i.e. Hyperic, GroundWorkOpen). While each of these models has its advantages and disadvantages, its common for commercial software vendors to disparage open source efforts as a collection of loosely connected, poorly controlled volunteers with cavalier attitudes. Also, these commercial vendors suggest that open source is poorly supported and that the soft labor cost of implementation and maintenance is overlooked. Perhaps they’re right, perhaps they’re wrong, but it is important to recognize there are a significant percentage of IT departments that believe in open source either because it’s free, or because it’s highly extensible, stable, and flexible.

This paper explores PacketTrap’s position that open source solutions are essential for IT departments in their mission to support their users. Specifically, it speaks to:
1) Why PacketTrap believes that open source is an extremely important and many times essential component of network management approaches;
2) How PacketTrap integrates open source products such as Nagios, MRTG, and Cacti into its approach, and;
3) PacketTrap’s position that IT departments should be skeptical of POSS vendors because shareholder profit motive overrides community and, for this reason, the long term viability of these companies is questionable.”