Many people mistake the concept of open-source technology or being an open-source company as being all about the open license. But it turns out there is so much more to being open source than a simple license.

“If you want to be a real open-source company … it goes beyond that — and that’s where we see many of the classic companies fail,” said Gerald Pfeifer (pictured), vice president of products and technology programs at SUSE (a Micro Focus company).

Pfeifer spoke with Lisa Martin (@LuccaZara), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and guest host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor), principal at The CTO Advisor, during the SAP Sapphire Now event in Orlando, Florida. They discussed the real meaning behind an open-source company and how companies can embrace it. (* Disclosure below.)

Creating open-source communities

Open source is really all about how a company handles software development, according to Pfeifer. It’s all about a development model that is about the communities it creates through transparency and communication.

“You need to let go,” he said. “You need to … lose control, and you need to help. If it’s something that you initiated, you need to make this attractive for others and easy to contribute.”

A great open-source company and the community it creates can’t be all about control; it can only influence — which happens over a long period of building trust, as Pfeifer described. “If you want to influence that, the easiest way and the hard way is you start contributing. And so you start building up rapport, you start building up credibility, and that’s usually not something you do overnight,” Pfeifer said.

It’s also important to note that customers do not care whether it’s open source or proprietary, according to Pfeifer. Customers care about the outcome. “It’s really what’s the best technical solution,” he concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the SAP Sapphire Now event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for SAP Sapphire Now. Neither NetApp Inc., the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE