Running Only on Open-Source Software

Open-source software has found increasing acceptance within IT for infrastructure application -- but many may still wonder, "Is it possible to run a company almost entirely with open-source offerings?"

Yes, according to Smartleaf, a 25-person Cambridge, Mass.-based application service provider ASP that creates and provides Web-based services and an open-source user for the majority of its IT infrastructure, development and production environments, and user desktops ever since the company was founded in 1999. 

Smartleaf's primary product, a financial account management system, lets banks, brokerages, registered investment advisors and other financial institutions manage individual accounts in a scalable and customized manner, including using any combination of internal and external research. Privately held, Smartleaf currently supports more than 40 customers managing a total of more than $6 billion in assets.

The open-source-intensive approach dates back to the creation of the company, championed by Robert Thau, chief architect at Smartleaf, according to Dan Ritter, Smartleaf's director of IT Operations. Ritter has been with Smartleaf since 2004; before that, he worked for Akamai and BBN. His experience includes system administration and network engineering with special attention to security.
 

Using Open Source Wherever Possible

According to Ritter, Smartleaf uses open-source software rather than purchasing "closed" proprietary software wherever possible. "We do our best to not use any software we can't see into and manage ourselves," Ritter said.

"Smartleaf's services use Linux, Apache, Perl, Ruby, C++ and Oracle. We also license a math library from NAG [Numerical Algorithms Group]," Ritter said. "We run Linux on all internal systems except for some secure ones which run OpenBSD. Our internal IT services use Samba for fileserving/sharing, Apache for Web serving, Bugzilla for bug-tracking, the RT Request Tracker tracking and trouble ticketing system, the Asterisk VOIP PBX for our voice systems, Jabber for instant messaging and presence, qmail, SpamAssassin, and CVS and Subversion for version control."

Smartleaf isn't a 100 percent open-source shop, Ritter noted. "For production, we use Oracle. And we have Mac OS and Windows desktops as well as Linux ones. We use open source -- Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice -- for the primary office and Internet productivity applications on all three. We use Microsoft on desktops only when people want it for some business reason, like accounting and QA." 

Although Smartleaf has about twice as many Linux desktops as Windows ones, "I have an assistant who spends about one-third of their time fixing miscellaneous problems with the Windows desktops. The Linux ones only need about an hour a week," Ritter said.

Control was the major factor in maximizing the use of open source, Ritter said.  "We have the ability to see what's going on, fix what's wrong and to log everything. For example, performance logging in Apache is much easier than it would be with Microsoft IIS or in Netscape Information Server. We can understand and fix things without needing external contracts. This lets us be sparing in hardware and software, and spend more on people -- but not be dependent on Microsoft support systems. We have not had any significant problems finding the tools, code or programs we want, or getting support."

Smartleaf doesn't just use open source; like many open-source-oriented companies, the company participates in open-source community activities. "We report bugs and do fixes -- we like to engage with  the user community of the products we use," Ritter said. "And we encourage people to do work on open- source software projects in their spare time."

Smartleaf also distributes -- makes available -- open-source IT tools through its Web site, at dev.smartleaf.com. "We've constructed our own IT environment," Ritter said. "Tuttle, the Tiny Utility Toolkit for Tweaking Large Environments, invented by Robert Thau , is our 'robo apprentice system administrator' -- it automates installing this IT environment," Ritter said.  "And we make Smartguard, our Ruby-based permissioning framework, available as a plug-in."

Using open-source software isn't completely challenge-free, Ritter acknowledged. "You have to be mindful of how you are using it in terms of its licensing. For example, you have to make sure you aren't distributing binaries against the licensing terms."