Leveraging Open-Source Solutions

To develop and deploy applications quickly, developers often leverage open-source solutions, which are existing solutions available on the web for free or much less expensive than similar commercial products. For example, developers may choose an open-source version of the Linux operating system or one of many open-source database-management systems. Advantages of using open-source solutions include the following:

• Reduced licensing costs

• Faster time to market

• Access to the underlying source code

• Community support

Disadvantages of open-source solutions include the following:

• Liabilities and warranties

• Compatibility issues

• Learning curve if the solution is new