Open Source Security Business Models
I have been having some interesting private discussions with friends over the last few days about the virtues of open source software development. I will say up front I have long been a skeptic.
Larry Augustin has been following the amount of VC money being invested in OS software companies. It shows an interesting story.
- 2004
- $298MM
- 36 deals
- 2005
- $306MM
- 41 deals
- 2006
- $481MM
- 48 deals
It seems everyone holds up RedHat and now JBoss as the poster children but it also seems there are still far too few real success stories to make the model as mainstream as some would like. In the security industry that data is even thinner on the ground. SourceFire IPO’d this year and their market cap has dropped back to a bit shy of 350 million. Not bad but not stellar, then again what do I know. With success in non-security companies like SugarCRM and Mozzilla turning in healthy profits I wonder if we will see any poster childs emerge for the open source security software model?
