Getting to the source of the problem

Con Zymaris is a man on a mission, and that is to educate both the local IT community and government to the benefits of Linux and open source technology.

As founder and CEO of Melbournebased Cybersource, Zymaris has acquired something of a reputation as an open source zealot, though he himself prefers to be referred to as an evangelist.

In other words, while he is extremely passionate about the technology and how he believes it can benefit its users, he is perfectly willing to listen to the views of the opposing side.

Zymaris’ career in software started in the late 1970s when he stumbled across EDE-IBM PC systems and Apple IIs as a 12 and13 year old.

By the age of 15, he was already getting software content published for early PC entertainment packages, working for a software publisher called Dreamcards. It was at about this time, Zymaris says, that he developed a passion for information technology in general.

He started programming around the same period and was paid to write serious software for the first time somewhere around the age of 15 or 16, something he says was not at all remarkable at the time. "In those days, there were plenty of kids like me around doing the same thing," he says. "There were lots of opportunities for writing software for robotics control and machine systems movement," he added.

During the mid 1980s, while also finding time for a physics degree, Zymaris ended up working for a software tools provider, where he had his first exposure to PC platforms, becoming one of the early users of both Windows and Unix platforms.

This, he says, gave him the ability to indulge his passion for technology with other like-minded individuals all over the world. "There were roughly four million people using the internet in 1989, which has now grown by a factor of over 250.

"It was a very exciting time. There was lots of great discussion going on over the possible uses of the technology, and I was able to converse freely with leaders in areas such as C++ programming language within a particular news group. The writers of a particular language could even tell you personally what you were doing right or wrong," Zymaris says.

There was also a general consensus amongst early adopters that what they were working on was going to be big, not only from a technical perspective but from a cultural and business one as well. It was for this reason, that, in early 1991, Zymaris got together with three long-time friends, all of whom had a background in systems development and one who would later become his wife, to form Cybersource, to work on internet-related technologies. The name, he says, was meant to be a cool play on the source for technology needs, long before the term cyberspace had become mainstream.

Finding a niche

The company focused primarily in the early days on services, using platforms such as minix and other Unix prototypes such as comp.os.linux, which was another improvement on Unix architecture, prior to moving to Linux and open source BSD Unix, which would later become known as Linux.

At the time of its launch in the early 1990s, not many businesses were using network platforms that underpinned the internet, Zymaris says.

Right from the outset, Zymaris says he had made it his aim to take open source software technology to the business world. The company, which started with the four like-minded friends getting together, now employs around 20 people and had enjoyed ‘considerable success’ in its 14 or so years because of the expertise and passion shown by its staff, he says.

Zymaris also says the company had shifted focus somewhat in recent times to the appliance and solutions side and away from services, in which "your whole stock is built around people".

He says Cybersource had achieved revenue growth of around 40 percent over the past few years. "We are not one of the big players, but because of our age and specialty in an area which is rapidly becoming a mainstream part of IT, it has propelled us along further than many other smaller companies," he says.

All of the company’s products are built with open source technologies and its own developments are also released as open source technologies.

He is also deeply passionate about the possibilities out there, contending that channel companies need to overcome a general lack of knowledge about the area if they want to take advantage of its possibilities. "There are literally 100,000 Linux applications out there if you are willing to take the time and effort to find them," he says.

This, he says, meant everything from 100 or so implementations of an industry vertical, to professional services automation, to a myriad of web-based applications.

There are also, he says, opportunities in web-based hosting services applications, such as the hosted groupware system. "Linux applications and services can easily provide the majority of needs for SMEs such as shared web email and calendaring," he says, adding that the costs of deploying a number of applications was minimal compared to Windows-based systems.

"A good example is for even a modest sized business may be spending up to $2000 a month for hosted platforms. You can create your own equivalent using open groupware from a site such as zimbra.com for a fraction of the cost," he says.

As far as he is concerned, there are two big things holding channel players back from diving headfirst into Linux applications and services.

The first is a general lack of knowledge about Linux products and services, in conjunction with the fact that they are competing with a multinational the size of Microsoft, which has an unlimited marketing budget.

"Websites such as Zimbra [which contains an extensive catalogue of Linux products and services] don’t have huge marketing budgets," he says.

The second problem is that Linux and open source offers nothing in a boxed package that comes from vendor XYZ.

"The average reseller doesn’t therefore put any effort into understanding how it can benefit their business," Zymaris says.

However, the beauty of open source, Zymaris claimed, is that you can develop your own products and services without having to ask anybody’s permission or by kowtowing to any particular vendor. "Channel companies have been indoctrinated into suckling off the nipples of particular vendors. Those vendors can switch off their drip feed whenever they choose and there’s nothing, as a channel partner, you can do about it."

The only way around this, Zymaris says, was to build your own solutions and services around open source solutions, effectively becoming a vendor yourself. "Channel companies need to get out there and actively pursue these technologies. There is no shortage of good online news services and web-based user groups that can assist those that have a desire to offer open source products.

A couple of good examples are sourceforge.net and the inaptly named freshmeat.net, which Zymaris says offered catalogues of literally thousands of open source applications. "Download them, test them, find out what’s right for you and your business," Zymaris implored. The really scary thing, he added, was that of 10,000 CRN readers, he estimated that less than 100 would have ever heard of sites such as these and Zimbra.com.

Zymaris at Cybersource's Melbourne office

Zymaris says that, according to figures from analysts such as IDC and Gartner, Linux and open source products currently have around 5 percent of the PC desktop market and around 20 to 30 percent of the server market and are achieving considerable growth. It is also worth remembering, he added, that open source applications are being used widely on Windows systems and that many companies such as Novell are moving users to desktop Linux products such as openoffice.org.

Globally, Zymaris says, the situation is a lot more encouraging for the open source community in general, where he says there was less of a psychological fear of living without Microsoft. This was particularly the case in developing countries, where the cost of setting up open source infrastructure was much less. In South Africa, government departments were moving to open source to cut costs.

In Australia, however, the move to open source technologies was painfully slow, Zymaris says, due to the dual facts that it is almost impossible to buy a PC or laptop without a Windows operating system and a lack of willingness by the government sector to put large IT contracts out to tender, merely "handing them to Microsoft".

However, Zymaris and Cybersource are not accepting this status quo lying down. In August, Cybersource filed a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over what he claimed was Microsoft’s unfairly monopolising the desktop software market, especially in the area of government department contracts.

Zymaris says that government departments in particular had been scared into not going to full public tender for major IT projects valued in the millions. "Companies such as Novell, Red Hat and IBM are missing out on multimillion dollar opportunities because their opponent has carved out a monopoly in the market. In regards to the retail PC and laptop situation, Zymaris says that all he was asking for was a fair go, adding that it was particularly unfair that the average punter, when purchasing a laptop, could not opt to not have a Windows operating system pre-installed, despite the fact that it would be factored into the cost of the laptop.

"What are we supposed to do when white-box vendors give you a product which comes with Windows, regardless of whether you want it or not?" he says. "The only way you get innovation is through competition. If I want a server with [certain] features and no operating system, then they comply. But if I go to the vendors and ask for a laptop without an operating system -- fat chance," Zymaris says.

He also says that, while the PC hardware market had showed signs of ‘real competition’, in the PC operating system and office ‘productivity’ software areas, innovation and price performance had suffered. Zymaris says the ACCC is currently examining Cybersource’s action, though no date has been given for a decision.

Zymaris says he had continually strived to develop a holistic understanding of the industry and provide it with solutions that it really needs. "I have spent the last 26 years digesting the industry to arrive at my understanding of it," he says, adding that he started using Windows way before most people had even heard of it, as an average home user. "It is my core belief that opinions can be changed and that Linux and open source products offer the greatest opportunities for businesses, government and home users."