Disclaimer: the views expressed in this article are those of Josef Assad and do not necessarily represent the views or position of Rambøll Informatik.

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The situation of free software in the Danish enterprise is an odd one. Nationally, we sport an awareness level which I would classify as far above international average, and yet adoption rates consistently fail to match this. We know of the free software option, we're just not doing all that much about it (note to self: I could probably reuse that statement in another blog post about my dripping faucet).

This is a bit of an odd situation. If my memory doesn't fail me (which it does frequently enough, natch) then I think it was David Wheeler who pointed out that the classical adoption cycle went something like this:

1. No open source. Everyone's using windows 3.1
2. The IT people hiding out behind the big iron in the mysterious data center discover GNU/Linux and free software
3. 5 to 8 years go by. The IT people grow in open source competence. Their spouses rejoice; no longer must they worry over birthday presents, for anything with a penguin on it will do
4. Management read about Linux and possibly open source in a trade publication. "That's a whole new skillset," they say, dismissing the idea.
5. "Not so!" comes a discordant chorus from behind the big iron. "We've been using open source for 5 years now!"
6. Open source begins permeating the enterprise.
7. IT vendors and entrepreneurs perceive the demand and create open source-based supply.
8. (obligatory) Profit!

Things seem a bit different here. There's a relatively robust local ecosystem of minnow open source IT shops, there's awareness, and yet there's sparingly little real adoption and deployment. I think Denmark looks a bit like this:

1. The IT people hiding out behind the big iron in the mysterious data center discover GNU/Linux and free software and become rather good at it (inventing a few new OO languages out of pure ennui every now and then)
2. Management and politicians discover open source and give it a thumbs up with varying degrees of vigor
3. ???
4. A thumb-twiddling pandemic sets in.
5. Profit! (for the proprietary option, that is)

I think I know what's been missing and is represented by ??? in that last scenario, and I recall a conversation with the good folks at OSL which indicated that they agreed with the theory. We haven't had a larger IT house come out and stand up for open source. There hasn't been a larger commercially oriented entity for the awareness to coalesce around to bring out the supply and demand. Well we don't have that excuse any longer.

I've been on board with Rambøll Informatik now for a period closing in on a year, and we're now in a position to disseminate marketing materials promoting our willingness and ability to work with free software. It is a first step and it is a measured one, but I and many colleagues are quite happy that we can now say "Yes we can" and reach out for official material.

We're not in the midst of a revolution here. I don't believe in software monocultures, open or proprietary. We have large groups of some of the country's finest .NET developers, Oracle DBAs, and Citrix specialists and much more - and make no mistake, our clients are richer for it. We're just being clearer about adding open source to our operations/outsorucing/offshoring repertoire in pragmatic and sensible fashion. Free software has not been optional for some time now, and the time is right for an upper tier IT house like us to step up to the plate and start swinging. We're not new to open source, we've been doing it for a while now - in particular in the operations/outsourcing/offshoring function where I hang my coat up every morning. We're bringing this out to provide a focal point for enterprise open source pragmatism to fall together.

You might be curious to see what these materials we've released look like; find the Danish version and English version attached below. Pass 'em on, tell me what you think. That's what the comments section here is for, or e-mail for that matter. And stay tuned, there should be more cool stuff coming out of this pipeline soon.

Danish Rambøll Informatik open source product sheet

English Rambøll Informatik open source product sheet

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