Benefits of the Community for Partners of Open Source Vendors

Open source vendors can benefit from business ecosystems that form around their products. Partners of such vendors can utilize this ecosystem for their own business benefit by understanding the structure of the ecosystem, the key actors and their relationships, and the main levers of profitability. This article provides information on all of these aspects and identifies common business scenarios for partners of open source vendors. Armed with this information, partners can select a strategy that allows them to participate in the ecosystem while also maximizing their gains and driving adoption of their product or solution in the marketplace.

Every free/libre open source software (F/LOSS) vendor strives to create a business ecosystem around its software product. Doing this offers two primary advantages from a sales and marketing perspective: i) it increases the viability and longevity of the product in both commercial and communal spaces, and ii) it opens up new channels for communication and innovation.

Access to source code, coupled with open communication channels, exposes each actor within the ecosystem to higher competitive pressures, but it also creates greater possibilities for cooperation. This so-called coopetition (simultaneous cooperation and competition) is a common phenomenon in open source communities. In addition, individual actors in an open system can achieve higher visibility, which adds to their reputation and public profile within the ecosystem and can make it easier for them to market themselves or their services...