As technology advisors we are on a lot of email lists that keep us up to date on all the latest updates to major hardware, software and service providers. Recently we got an email from the guys over at Word Press (one of the biggest open source blog software/service providers).
As technology advisors we are on a lot of email lists that keep us up to date on all the latest updates to major hardware, software and service providers. Recently we got an email from the guys over at Word Press (one of the biggest open source blog software/service providers).

While the nature of the email was how great the newest release was (2.7.1), it inspired me to explain one of the greatest benefits businesses benefit from the open source revolution. Now, most people these days equate open source with free software and in this economy who could complain about free, but it's the long term that can make the most sense.

If this was a traditional software package, you'd have to renew a maintenance agreement, pay for the next release. That's fine when both you and your IT people agree that it is a worthy update, but what happens when the opinions differ, you don't want to spend the money, but your IT firm advocate for its technical superiority.  It makes the upgrade a no-brainer.

Moreover, reducing or removing the financial barrier will keep you from having to debate between cost and security. Even in the case of a blog, keeping up with new releases will reduce your vulnerability hacks where people can deface your blog and damage your reputation.

Even if you are using paid software, transitioning to the vendors ‘software as a service (SAAS) if available, could keep you on the latest release with no upgrade hassles, of course you will still have to pay for the software on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis.