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During his opening keynote speech, SugarCRM c-founder and CEO John Roberts touched on a number of very relevant points regarding the present state and future of Open Source software in general and SugarCRM in particular.

Traditionally, Open Source software has been low cost alternative. The notion of 'value' did not really enter the frame, because the software is free ?  Certainly, in difficult times like we currently experiencing. cost savings are critical so the implementation and use of Open Source alternatives are on the rise. However, for SugarCRM it has never been about building the lowest cost alternative, but about building the best software. Over the next five  years the main battle is not going to be 'how can you cut costs', but 'how can you create value for your customer´.

In the pre-Open Source era there were only two choices: buy a out-of-the-box package or build a CRM application self. Traditional software companies have created (their) value trough dependency but in this model it is all about vendor value, not customer value. The Open Source approach however is to let the customer make all the choices and not the vendor because since you get the source code and this code is based on open standards, there is no software lock-in.

John Roberts is of the opinion that combining Open Source and cloud computing is the way forward. I must admin that I agree. I honestly think  that vendor lock-in and proprietary systems are a doomed and will have to adapt their business model. Security lies in the community, and a healthy community is the best guarantee for secure and stable applications. To survive during the following couple of very difficult years it is key NOT to rule through scarcity, but rather though abundance using the community to create value for the customer.