It’s Friday night. The kids are in bed and the takeaway has just arrived at your doorstep. You sit down on the sofa, pick up the TV remote and turn on Netflix. You ask Siri to turn down the lights, it’s time for the weekend to begin. Sounds great?
5 years ago your Friday night would have been powered almost exclusively by proprietary tech, today it’s nearly all Open-source.
Netflix has their tech stack running mostly on AWS, using Linux. Chances are that takeaway website is run on Node.js. Your smart home lighting system is being run with Kubernetes clusters.
Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js have been some of the most commonly used open-source platforms.
With Open-source everything from code to dev, roadmaps to bug fixes are done in public. Run by an independent governing body made up of super-fans, companies and foundations. Shared and stored in a public repository.
Surprisingly, open source can be a fast and secure way to replace legacy tech.
With a global community of developers behind you the speed of change is lighting fast. Open-source devs are viewed as artists looking to learn and showcase their best work for the world to see.
If everyone has access to the code I am using, doesn’t that make it more vulnerable to attacks?
With more eyes on the potential vulnerabilities and more hands to patch the holes, Open-source vulnerabilities don’t stay around for long.
How does this help me with tech value creation?
It gives you a starting point for a conversation with your tech teams:
- How are you leveraging open source and proprietary tech?
- What discussions are we having about different dev approaches?
- Are the management team worried about open source? If so what are their concerns?
These questions can help uncover the unconsidered needs within your portcos.
What will you do next?
How much value could open source bring to your portfolio companies? How much could be gained by creating proprietary tech? How can you leverage a mix of these technologies to create a robust, memorable experience?
How will you change our Friday nights?
Thomas
You can sign up to get more ‘unconsidered needs’ below.