As the COVID-19 pandemic shakes the world, companies need to change to embrace remote work and increasingly online operations. One way to quickly adapt to these new dynamics is to use open-source tools, available for access from anywhere in the globe, according to Alan Clark (pictured), who works in SUSE’s CTO Office focusing on emerging technologies and open source.

“Our customer sentiments are changing; their purchasing habits are obviously changing. That’s changing the services that companies need to deliver,” Clark said. “And one of the powers of open source is being able to provide that to them and deliver those services very rapidly.”

Clark spoke with Stu Miniman, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the SUSECON Digital event. They discussed the current state of open source, how it can help companies during the pandemic, and the governance challenges of open source as a growing number of companies and people collaborate with it. (* Disclosure below.)

Facing supply shortages

One problem that open source can help solve is supply chain disruption during the pandemic. Because of the lockdown to contain the spread of the virus, many companies have experienced a shortage of supplies and have realized they need to multiply their sources of these products. In addition, with the closure of borders, companies were no longer able to obtain supplies from other countries, which started the “nationalization instead of globalization” debate.

“Those kinds of discussions change your source of supplies and so forth, so you have to diversify a little bit, and that’s causing new types of services that are going to be created, needed,” Clark explained. “The beauty of open source, though, is it’s global, and so I can get access to it whether I’m here in Salt Lake City or I’m sitting up in Dublin, wherever I’m at.”

In addition to helping companies during the crisis, open source can be useful for individuals. It is an opportunity to learn new ideas, technologies, and try things for free. And SUSE’s initiatives are a good starting point, according to Clark.

“First, [SUSE has] created a sandbox out there where I, as an individual, for free can go out there and give rapid application development a try,” Clark pointed out. “It’s easy; it’s all set up for me. I can go out there, and I can play.”

Second, SUSE has opened up much of its online training courses for developers and operators. “We’re stuck at home; it’s a great time to take advantage of these resources and learn more about open source,” Clark added.

Open-source foundations have grown exponentially, as has the number of people who are contributing to them, not only with code, but also with ideas and best practices, Clark pointed out.

“The other part of it that I really enjoy is it’s gone global,” he said. “It used to be these projects were kind of regional, and perhaps North America to Europe, but … they’ve gone global, so these larger projects will have 170, 180 countries that are involved.”

The pandemic has not hurt open source, as its developers are very used to working from home in different time zones and geographic areas around the world. “And we know how to communicate and work together, so having this distance and lack of an office is actually not that much of an impediment for open source. So, it’s actually kind of to their advantage,” Clark concluded.

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE