And now, a drumroll please....HERE's to the Open Source franchise. OpenForum Europe provides a certification framework and a platform to standardize Open Source services. It helps organizations planning to take the Open Source plunge to understand the risks of going with specific vendors. It also enables organizations analyze their existing portfolio to identify lock-in risks and mitigation paths and plans. This service is based on the standards created by the somewhat confusingly named The Open Forum Europe - TOF-e, not to be confused with the former organization!

Although the potential service providers and service users are expected to be small companies, there is no reason why this cannot be scaled at either end to support larger companies. The platform also suggests a judicious mix of open and closed systems. Admittedly, while OSS shines in many areas, not all are covered by OSS products. The need of the hour is to use the best possible closed products until viable OSS options become available.