But is FOSS for me?
With the 'Windows' cavity still deep rooted into the system of IT professionals, most wonder what does becoming a FOSS expert have in store for them? The changing IT landscape will only lead to a huge demand for FOSS experts for deploying open source in developing products and solutions. "We can clearly see large scale FOSS adoption in the SME segment as well in enterprise. Major ISVs have a dedicated release of their product for a Linux platform. Typical examples are Oracle, SAP, etc. Skilled manpower is required to develop, test, deploy and support these software. Hence, we see a major upsurge in the demand for FOSS professionals," says Ramesh Kumar, director, Linux Learning Centre, which offers courses on Linux administration, security, kernel programming, device driver programming, scripting, web development and development libraries. Adding on, Umesh Venkatesh, vice-president, sales and operation, V2Soft India, says, "Since IT is fast moving towards cost-effective solution for business needs, the demand for open-source has raised tremendously. When the time required to deliver a product is less the need to incorporate reusable components becomes a must. The reusable components are available as plug in modules which can be incorporated in a desired project."
Last year IDC raised its forecast for free and open source software thrice giving you a clear glimpse into the kind of growth expected for FOSS. IDC projects worldwide revenue from open source software to reach $3.9 billion, a 34 per cent increase from the $2.9 billion in 2008. In such a FOSS-oriented IT landscape, FOSS experts will become a default need sooner or later. Elaborating on it, Rajesh Chhikara, director of Delhi-based Institute of Open Source (IOS) and head HR of EarlySail Software, says, "The IT industry faces challenge of delivering the product quickly and with low budget, be it a web application or desktop application. Training professionals on content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc has equipped them to make robust sites with ease and fast." IOS offers FOSS training courses in PHP, core and advanced Java, Perl, basic and advanced course in Linux and different server configuration courses, Web Administration, Web Master and many OSS customised courses. Further, FOSS training adds a lot of value to the professional's career. "It adds value to his career as most SMEs and large enterprises now use an integrated environment where they use proprietory as well as FOSS software," adds Ramesh Kumar.
Self-learning vs formal FOSS training
However, a lot of the FOSS professionals today haven't become experts attending formal training. They made experimentation their guru. Many IT professionals wish to follow suit but fail to foresee the impediments enroute. Advising them, Satish Gopinath, proprietor, Integer Education, says, "FOSS training gives a formal façade to otherwise informal set up helping professionals get a total grip on the software. Professionals attempting to learn without a formal training will spend more time on the process and even miss out on important points." Adding on, Venkatesh says, "Although system administrators, network engineers and other IT professionals should be able to learn FOSS on their own, they loose out a certification process which will assess their competence as FOSS professionals. They loose out on the advantages of certification, like industry recognition of your FOSS skills. Further, a structured training programme will ensure systematic and adequate coverage of the various topics."
Chhikara feels the insufficient number of FOSS Training institutes had forced professionals the self-experimentation way in the past. "Professional wanted to be trained by hardcore industry professionals as compared to normal traditional faculties but very few institutes have hardcore industry professionals," he says, adding that the education system isn't equipped yet to address these concerns.
What FOSS skill should I acquire?
With FOSS is now predominantly used in back office servers, the areas for training would be in operating systems, servers, security and Web application development. Also desktop applications are beginning to mature, that will result in a growing need to train users to use these applications. So, take the FOSS plunge and equip yourself to handle the changing IT needs.
--Vanisha Joseph |
