Individual Donations:
Our mystery member manufactures network infrastructure equipment based upon open source software. They feel that the network security device market has become commoditized and the router market is hopelessly dominated by Cisco.
". . . we lower the price of our hardware by reducing the cost of our software . . ."
". . . we do not have the in-house development resources of a Cisco or Nortel . . ."
They are looking to the OSDC ISCS project to give them a unique differentiator from the entrenched players in the security device space. "We are trusting that the major vendors with the inertia of a huge investment in their own software development will overlook the open source wild card. That will give us a small window of opportunity to make a place for ourselves."
They are also looking to the future plans of ISCS to develop into a full fledged network management console. "If we can provide a management console that exceeds the capabilities of the big boys and combine it with the low cost of open source networking technology, we stand a chance to do for network infrastructure devices what Red Hat and SUSE have done for Server and Host Systems."
"The value proposition for us is threefold. First, we lower the price of our hardware by reducing the cost of our software. The lower the price of our hardware, the more hardware we can sell at a greater margin. Second, the grass roots creativity of open source products like ISCS provide us with unique differentiators in a commoditized market for as long as the larger players ignore the open source movement. Third, we do not have the development resources of a Cisco or Nortel. The only way we can compete against those powerhouses is by tapping into the collective efforts of a worldwide development community."