Open Source and Business Issues © 2004 Northrop Grumman Corp. All rights reserved. 1 Open Source and Business Issues: A Look into the Near Future NorthNorth F-18C Weapons Separation Space Maneuvering Vehicle eGovOS Open Source in Government Conference March 16, 2004 Michael Fitzmaurice Manager Open Source Solutions

Open Source and Business Issues © 2004 Northrop Grumman Corp. All rights reserved. 2 Open Source in the Federal Government  Northrop Grumman Projects in the Government Weather Service ( AWIPS ) Problem: Performance problems during Severe Weather Solution: Replace Unix systems with Linux Servers –Benefits to the government »Reduced cost, Lower TCO »Performance increase, Tech Refresh more frequent DoD ( NSWC ) Problem: Needed faster turn around time for models and scalability Solution: Replaced 64 processor Unix system with Beowulf Cluster –10x price performance advantage over replaced system –Lower OM costs, Linearly Scalable

Open Source and Business Issues © 2004 Northrop Grumman Corp. All rights reserved. 3 Open Source in the Federal Government  Northrop Grumman Projects in the Government NASA ( Goddard Space Flight Center) Problem: The Program was losing their Supercomputer Solution: Designed and delivered a Beowulf Cluster –Modeling code was recompiled and fully operational in a few weeks –20x price performance over replaced system –User has total control of system resources –Beowulf Cluster is fully scalable –Project so successful that it will be expanded 10x

Open Source and Business Issues © 2004 Northrop Grumman Corp. All rights reserved. 4  Future Growth Areas in the Government Beowulf Clusters in the Enterprise Oracle 9i RAC ( Real Application Cluster ) Data Base Oracle 10g ( Oracle Grid ) Data Base IBM DB2 Data Base SAP Informix Data Base Sybase Data Base MYSQL Data Base Domino PostgreSQL Data Base Open Source in the Federal GovernmentOpen Source in the Federal Government Future Growth

Open Source and Business Issues © 2004 Northrop Grumman Corp. All rights reserved. 5 Beowulf Clusters  What is a Beowulf Cluster COTS Hardware, Open Source OS, Network, Management Software How to Learn more Attend the Baltimore-Washington Beowulf Users Group meetings: Second Tuesday of the Month at 3:00 PM Northrop Grumman Information Technology –McLean or Greenbelt

Open Source and Business Issues © 2004 Northrop Grumman Corp. All rights reserved. 6  Cost (including cost control) and Business Risk Both barrier words begin with $  In the mainstream business world… Budgets are finite Initiatives compete for limited dollars Solid business cases are essential Cost controls are demanded Risks to business objectives are feared Early adapters tend to be much more risk tolerant Risk is part and parcel of technology evolution and shakeout Risk management is essential before emerging technologies can capture a significant share of the market These customers are not interested in the technology, They are interested in the business impact of the technology.

Open Source and Business Issues © 2004 Northrop Grumman Corp. All rights reserved. 7 Typical Business Questions: A Subset  What are the initial and life-cycle costs? What cost controls are in place?  What is the business case? What is the benefit, in future revenue or savings, for every dollar of cost?  How well thought out is the approach? Where has it been proven? What industry standard methods and disciplines are being applied?  What are the development and business risks? How is risk being managed?  How will change be managed? How will buy-in from all stakeholders be ensured? The long range success of open source technology depends on strong program management – just like all technologies before it have.