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Why Open Source Database Drivers Are Not Viable
Introduction
Open source software is gaining traction in many software infrastructure markets, particularly in the operating system, Web/application server and database server infrastructure areas. Many organizations currently are leveraging open source components or are devising an open source acquisition and management plan. In most cases, organizations are adopting a blended-source approach that leverages both open source and traditionally licensed software. It is not uncommon to see environments that leverage a commercial database, such as Oracle, running on Linux, an open source operating system. This phenomenon is accelerated by interoperability support for open source components provided by traditionally licensed software vendors.
DataDirect Technologies has a proven track record in blended-source deployments. DataDirect's database middleware products are pervasively deployed in production environments, including many scenarios that include open source components.
Successful infrastructure-level open source solutions, such as Apache and Linux, enjoy two distinguishing characteristics that make them suitable for enterprise deployments of critical applications. First, they are supported by a large, vibrant community of developers who ensure robust feature support, solid reliability, and enterprise-class performance and scalability. Second, these infrastructure-level solutions are backed by a consortium (Apache Software Foundation) or commercial venture (RedHat, JBoss) that provides the financial backing and management infrastructure to sustain ongoing research and development, as well as technical and legal support. Projects lacking a vibrant developer community and commercial support are just that – technology projects. Although they may be suitable for certain non-critical use cases, these projects lack the characteristics that make a technology suitable for use with business-critical production systems. Literally, thousands of these projects are available on the SourceForge open source portal – most are developed and maintained by one or two part-time developers.
Although many major infrastructure components (for example, operating systems and Web/application servers) enjoy the critical developer mass and financial/organizational support necessary for success, open source efforts for more modest solutions, such as database drivers, do not use modern development methodologies and quality assurance, and lack organized support operations. Organizations that use an open source database driver assume extraordinary risk because of inferior product quality, non-existent technical support, and the complete assumption of legal liability. This article contrasts the organizational approach used by open source database driver providers with DataDirect's industry-leading, database connectivity solutions, which are production viable and commercially supported. After reading this article, it will be apparent that the product quality, technical support, and legal liability risks associated with open source database drivers far outweigh any initial cost advantages associated with the open source option.
