Open source solutions can be a powerful addition to your enterprise IT tool kit. Modern open source softwares are fully supported and warrantable, and are developed by extensive communities of experts.
Skyrack uses both open source and traditional commercial softwares. We believe in the right tools for the job, and these may include either approach.
Modern open source softwares now frequently differ from their commerical counterparts only in the licensing models, with many companies now providing commercially focussed businesses behind open source. These “commercial open support models” are known as COSMO softwares, and have the same approach to quality, roadmap development, support and level of expertise.
At Skyrack we have invested time and money to develop expertise in several such software packages, and are growing our portfolio all the time. We are so confident in these systems that we run much of the Skyrack Telecoms platform from open source – for instance, we use jBilling to handle all our VoIP CDR’s (call records), generate bills and take payment.
In many other technology areas we have existing expertise from years of experience in software development and IT management. We can advise you on the best open source choices out there, help you implement your software, and help you customise or develop open source to meet your precise needs.
Our Open Source Partners
Skyrack has partner status and certification with several specific open source packages.
jBilling
- enterprise scale billing platform to suit all business models
- pre-pay, post-pay, metered (CDR) services, subscriptions, e-commerce, retail
- billing, invoicing, account management, reporting and payment gateway integration
- mediation, rating, catalogue management and dynamic pricing
RiverMuse
- network event and fault management
- carrier class platform capable of managing extreme volumes
- sophisticated collection and correlation engine
- alarm, escalation and action management
Coming soon:
OpenAM / Open DS – enterprise scale identity management and directory server (formerly Sun OpenSSO and SunOpenDS)
Other Open Source expertise
Skyrack works with a whole range of open source technologies on a daily basis.
Platform and O/S:
- Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora linux
- MySql and postgres databases
- Java, Tomcat, JBoss, Drools, Spring frameworks
- Linux Apache PHP stack (LAMP)
- OpenSSO/OpenAM
- OpenDS
- Nagios and Munin
- Eclipse, Subversion and GIT
Applications:
- jBilling for all aspects of billing, including CDR rating, mediation, invoicing, balance management and reporting
- Openrate is an alternative rating solution (jBilling is preferred)
- SugarCRM – customer and sales management, including jBilling quote and order integration (we can also implement realtime telephony lookups with the Voice Connect service using Sugar as he background customer management tool
- WordPress and Joomla – website and CMS toolsets
- Drools – business rules engine (which is integrated with jBilling but is a powerful tool in its own right)
- JBPM and Intalio – business process management platforms
Voice and data networks:
- Asterisk and Freeswitch, particularly jBilling integration for pre-/post-pay
- FreeRADIUS and other network AAA tools
- SIP express and other SIP routing soltuions
- SIPdroid and other SIP clients
Using open source
Development. Open source softwares are developed by community teams and by the companies that run the product roadmaps. Skyrack is a contributor to several open source projects, including jBilling. Open source is de facto available as source, free of charge and you may typically modify the source provided you make the changes available to the community, depending on the licensing model.
Licensing. The majority of open source packages are licensed under GPL (v1 or v2) or A-GPL licenses, or varieties of these. You can find more information about licensing at the Free Software Foundation website. Call Skyrack for advice if you’re still unsure.
Support. Subscription based support models are available for most packages, and many open source softwares come with an enterprise licensing option that gives you enhanced warranty, bug fixing, support and commercial (GPL-free) licensing.
Skyrack can help you decide on the best model, support you during installation, implementation and customisation. We also offer support and licensing re-sales models direct from the open source suppliers – just contact us to discuss.
More about Open source
- Read Forrester on Open source
- Black Duck open source advice
- Open source initiative
- OS4B
- The Opengroup
- Open Software Alliance
- The Free Software Foundation