'Free' as in puppy, or 'free' as in beer?

Like many homes in Canada, we opened our door at various times to a furry, four legged creature.  While we are currently in a dog-less state of affairs right now, dogs were an endless source of inspiration for me in blog writing.

This is Isabel.  She was our warm blooded Hoover of all edible items on the floor, and the source of many of my former blog posts.

While Isabel was not a "free to a good home" puppy, the price we pay to feed her, vet her, and replace the things damaged by her, the sleep we lose when she decided 3 am was a great time to go out, eclipse the price of admission.  Not that we regretted it, there were some benefits... at least SOMEONE was happy that I came home.

But that is not what this post is about.  There is a perception out there that organizations should jettison their costly licenses for operating systems, email, office applications, databases, etc. and start using opensource or freeware applications instead - because they are free.

I've been in the world of IT for more than 20 years, and I've run across this perception that opensource = free for almost as long.

The latest discussions around Google Docs vs. Office365 has opened up this dialog all over again. It would seem that the only thing we can learn from history, is that we don't learn from history.

For those of you who have been in the business for a while, you know that the hardware and software component of any enterprise wide deployment averages around 20% of the total cost, once you factor in cost of switching systems, support costs, training costs, data conversion, system integration, etc.

Saving on the license fees will have less of an impact on the overall project once you add the increased support and training costs to the project.  Just say to yourself... "Opensource/Google Docs/etc. is free as in puppy, not free as in beer."

There is some great applications out there.  But don't choose any platform solely based on cost savings, choose it because it allows you to meet all of your objectives.

About the Author:

Kevin Pashuk is Chief Information Officer for Appleby College, in Oakville, Ontario Canada, where his team is transforming the delivery of education through innovative application of technology.

Kevin is convinced that IT leadership needs to dramatically change how IT is delivered rather than being relegated to a costly overhead department.

In addition to transforming IT in his role as CIO, he looks for every opportunity to talk about this... writing, speaking and now blogging on BeBee, LinkedIn (https://ca.linkedin.com/in/kpashuk), ITWorld Canada, or at TurningTechInvisible.com.

He also is an avid amateur musician and photographer (but not at the same time).  Check out his photostream on Flickr  or on beBee hive: serious-amateur-photographers