CollabNet Inc. may put some of its core software under an open source license, or under a dual-licensing model, to promote its adoption by users, an executive said.
The Brisbane, Calif., company offers a managed service for geographically distributed software development, using software products it has developed such as CollabNet Enterprise Edition and CollabNet Community Edition. Customers can also license the products and host them on their own data centres.
By opening the software’s source code to users, the company will encourage more users to adopt it, and that would be an opportunity for CollabNet to grow its services business, said Bill Portelli, president and chief executive officer of CollabNet, in a recent interview.
“I can see CollabNet coming up with a (dual) license that allows users greater access, but will also help us thrive and protect our business,” Portelli said.
Under a dual-license model, users will be able to download and use the software for free, he said. Companies and other organizations that redistribute the software would have to purchase the software, he added.
The company, however, has no immediate intention to release its software offerings under a dual license scenario, Portelli added.
The company has already contributed software to the open source community, including Subversion. Subversion is an open source version-control system for enterprise software development.
As it opens up more of its software, the focus of the company would then shift to services around its software, as CollabNet has done with Subversion, which it now offers as a hosted service, Portelli said. The company also offers training and support on Subversion.
About 25 per cent of CollabNet’s customers include open source software development projects such as OpenOffice.org, and community projects that typically include an open source component, Portelli said.
Open source development, outsourced software development and services oriented architectures are helping CollabNet’s business grow worldwide, because all three require software developers to be connected over the Internet, according to Portelli.
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