Innovation is Open-source Server and Software, Not Proprietary

At the Open Source Business Conference in 2004, the discussion centered on how to fund open source's survival. Six years later, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst says it is the economics of open source that are driving the development of the cloud and other projects. The Open Road reports on Whitehurst's OSBC keynote speech in this article.

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Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst believes Google couldn't have adopted its current business model but for open-source software.

"This trend, not visible in 2004, started with early adopters like Google. As Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst highlighted in his opening OSBC keynote speech Wednesday, Google couldn't exist, and certainly couldn't have adopted its current business model, but for open-source software.

"Whitehurst backed this up by pointing to Google's planned 10 million servers. Adding up the roughly $2,000 in software costs per server (for the operating system, database, etc.) means that it would take roughly $20 billion for Google to run those 10 million servers with proprietary software."

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