How committed are developers to open systems?

Well, for me it's the new financial year and as always there is pressure on the budget and the need to get the best from the resources we have.

So with that in mind, I've just been reading how many organisations are spending far more than they need to because individual departments are reluctant - or even refusing - to relinquish their IT assets. It poses two questions in my mind.

The first, obvious, question is 'why?' 

Are departments worried about the level of service they'll get if someone else is in control?  Or is it a case of 'empire building' or 'empire protection' ? Surely this could be resolved if the IT department is a trusted part of the organisation and understands the business needs which are being serviced through the use of these IT assets. But I can see that in many organisations there is still a perceived chasm between the IT staff and their colleagues 'in the business'. It's on the radar of every CIO I have ever met for the last few years. This seems to have an easy answer but generally in the IT world we don't seem to be slaying this particular dragon. Something to think about another day.

The second question is more problematic to me. Over the years I have been on the receiving end of many presentations about open systems. The virtues of interoperability have been extolled over and over. So why is it that when we try to co-locate applications onto a common server infrastructure, developers are immediately up in arms saying that they couldn't possibly guarantee the performance of their application if it were to be moved. What are they protecting? Or more importantly, what are they afraid of?

For me, this reinforces the fact that when I am presented with a design proposal for a new or enhanced application, I shall probe very hard to make sure I understand all the limitations of the design as well as the always well-presented opportunities. So my belated new year resolution now is not to put up with 'development ego' from my suppliers and to make sure they really are committed to 'open' technologies.  Let's see !