Ever since the introduction of Artificial Intelligence, businesses have been looking for ways to use AI to their advantage. AI has become a buzzword in the business world, with many companies trying to incorporate it into their operations. The potential benefits of AI for businesses are significant, and the technology is rapidly advancing, making it easier to implement in various industries. For example, AI-powered chatbots can handle customer queries and provide personalized support 24/7. This not only saves time and money for the business, but it also improves the customer experience by providing fast and accurate responses.

In this third part of our series on the state of A.I. in 2023, we will delve into the cutting-edge tools and technologies that businesses can adopt to bolster their operations and attain a competitive advantage. By embracing these innovative solutions, companies can enhance their efficiency, productivity, and profitability.

As a developer, you likely spend a lot of time working with code and other files on your computer. To make your life easier, there are several different automation tools available that can help you automate various tasks.

If you frequently work with the same set of files, for instance, you can use an automation tool to have those files open for you each time your development environment launches. Or, if you often need to run the same set of commands in your terminal, you can use an automation tool to create a shortcut for those commands.

Two of the most popular automation tools are Ansible and Vagrant. Ansible is a configuration management tool that can be used to automate various tasks, such as provisioning and maintaining servers. Vagrant is a tool that can be used to create and manage virtual development environments.

Both Ansible and Vagrant have their strengths and weaknesses. Ansible is typically more complex to learn than Vagrant, but it can be more powerful once you get the hang of it. Vagrant is generally simpler to use than Ansible, but it doesn’t have as many features.

So which automation tool should you use? In this article, we’ll compare Ansible vs. Vagrant and explore the main differences between them. We’ll also discuss when you might want to use each tool for your projects.

Considering the phenomenal growth of open source over the last decade, it wouldn’t be surprising to know that open source technologies are now commonly used in traditional on-premise systems. But traditional on-premise systems are slowly going obsolete today as the cloud dominates.

Businesses are now investing in moving their workloads to the cloud which will require the usage of certain specific tools. This is where open source comes in. When shifting to the cloud, it’s best to start with great management tools. There are cloud-compatible open source tools specifically designed for resource management. Many companies also prefer open source software development to custom-build a tool that fits perfectly well with their business ecosystem.

This blog lists a few effective open source cloud management tools that will make things easier for a business migrating to the cloud.
 

OneOps

 
Rhymes well with DevOps, doesn’t it?

That’s because the tool was built around the concept of DevOps and is ideal for a multi-cloud architecture. Released under the Apache 2.0 license by Walmart Labs, OneOps is officially described as a cloud management cum application lifecycle management platform. As such it rivals popular tools like Chef, Puppet etc.

OneOps is useful for all clouds that leverage OpenStack cloud environments be it public, private, or hybrid. It also goes well with Microsoft Azure services or AWS. With OneOps, a business will be able to create virtual instances, maintain them, and configure security settings in addition. But that isn’t all it can do with its biggest feature being facilitating application migration from one cloud to another.
 

Docker

 
It won’t be wrong to assume that Docker is the world’s most popular container technology. The open source technology is already considered a premium standard as a platform for container development as well as deployment.

With Docker’s open source orchestration services – Machine, Swarm, and Compose, organizations will find container management much easier and more effective.

• Machine – To automate Docker container provisioning. Facilitates integration with Apache Mesos granting capabilities of bigger-scale.
• Swarm – To scale container-enabled applications with a pool of container hosts. Can be used to resolve cluster management issues including scheduling.
• Compose – To link containers together so they function as a group. Makes managing widely distributed container clusters easier.

Kubernetes

 
The most dominant force to be reckoned with in the container management sector for public and private clouds, Google’s Kubernetes is a celebrated open source container orchestration system with its open source framework even adopted by many tech giants including Microsoft.

With Kubernetes, organizations can distribute their containers across a cluster of cloud machines while the technology efficiently deals with scaling and service management issues. Kubernetes is compatible with a plethora of cloud and data center services including Azure, AWS, and Apache Mesos.
 

Apache Mesos

 
Mesos, another open source tool, is also a great option for cloud management. What makes it unique is that it also makes it easier to manage traditional hardware and software along with clouds akin to how a single computer is managed. It’s sometimes referred to as a ‘distributed systems kernel’ that facilitates effective management of thousands of servers using containers. Mesos complements large, distributed databases like Hadoop.
 

Conclusion

 
Over the next couple of years, new cloud computing technologies and trends will emerge and several approaches your organization uses now may require drastic changes. Additionally, there will be advancements in open source technologies to consider as well; like when the advent of the MEAN stack led to the slow decline in demand for LAMP development services.

The complexity of open source cloud management tools is likely to go up a notch in the coming times. This means organizations should keep themselves updated on how things are changing around their business’ cloud ecosystem to figure out optimum approaches and the rights tools to derive the best results.

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Android became a worldwide phenomenon not only because it is Google’s operating system but also because it is an open source OS. Among various things that make open source technologies intriguing, one major trait is that they often come with surprisingly innovative features that are normally seen on commercially sold software and apps with noticeably bigger price tags possess.

However, Android still has a few proprietary components that make up its functionality and user experience aspects. But the open source Linux is still its base kernel establishing the OS as an open source contribution.

The stock Android ROM served as a foundation for a number of third-party custom ROMs including MIUI, Paranoid Android etc. Apart from the ROM, many apps designed to run on Android are actually open source complementing the nature of the OS itself. As a leading open source development services provider in the Middle East, we too often deal with client demands for an open source mobile app for Android.

That said, as we are ushering in 2019, here is a list of a few open source mobile apps that ended up making a lot of Android users happy this year.
 

Orbot

 
Orbot, a product from The Tor Project released in 2008, is the Android version alternative to the Tor browser. Similar to Tor, Orbot serves as an effective anonymity cover for Android devices.

Once the Tor proxy has been enabled using Orbot, the app will suggest using an open source web browser called Orfox which in turn shares source code similarities with the Tor browser. To unlock Orbot’s full potential, the device it’s running on will have to be rooted.
 

VLC for Android

 
VLC is one of the most popular video players for the Windows operating system. It’s free and open source, and has a dedicated community working on improving it. VLC for Android didn’t dominate the Play Store however as MX Player already took the top spot. Nevertheless, VLC Android is still loved by millions of Android users, and features better audio support than MX player as well.
 

Amaze File Manager

 
What Android users expect from a great file manager include simplicity, material design, appealing looks, and a bunch of other useful file management features. Amaze File Manager has all these and more. Amaze File Manager is an open source file manager that gained good momentum this year in terms of downloads and feedback. It can also use other apps to open various media files.
 

AdBlock Browser

 
Intrusive advertisements are too frequent and too annoying now. With the AdBlock browser for Android, unwanted or intrusive advertisements while browsing can be blocked. The customizable open source browser is recommended by Stanford University and the Electronic Frontier Foundation as it also effectively minimizes the risks of ‘malicious advertising’ infections.
 

ProtonMail

 
ProtonMail was founded by CERN scientists in 2013, and was backed by a $550,000 donation campaign. The open source app is proudly presented as the world’s largest encrypted email service. The app comes with an impressive, modern UI with a number of great features including customizable swipe gestures, set self-destruct timers for messages etc. Users can also password-protected encrypted emails to non-ProtonMail addresses.
 

Conclusion

 
Evidently, 2018 gave a lot of momentum to a number of open source Android apps despite heavy competition. Open source tools and technologies have been around for a long time, and never have they actually disappointed people who simply aren’t willing to spend a lot on apps. Most open source apps including the ones in this list are products of passion.

As open source gains more traction across popular industries including but not limited to software development, mobile app development, IoT applications etc., we can expect the arrival of even more open source digital solutions packing awesome features with surprisingly smaller price tags or none at all.

Open source is so popular and widely used that there are people who are using it daily without even realizing it. There are people who use WordPress, one of the most popular open source platforms, for blogging. There are many who use Mozilla Firefox, another digital contribution from open source, for browsing. Open source development services are highly demanded by enterprises across various industries.

As a matter of fact, a survey by Black Duck last year revealed that 60% of the surveyed businesses reported an increase in the use of open source in 2017.

Despite the wide acceptance and popularity, open source technologies are heavily criticized by many. Many myths surround the technology and many people believe those myths and misconceptions are true. Here are 5 such open source myths that people still believe to be true.
 

It’s free

 
The ‘free’ of open source technologies relates to ‘freedom’ i.e. open source technologies tend to have fewer restrictions than their proprietary counterparts. People think it’s all about the monetary cost and ‘free’ means it wouldn’t cost them anything.

However, there are free (literally) open source technologies available but they may not be the most up-to-date or feature-rich. Typically there wouldn’t be any licensing costs for open source software. But there are exceptions to this as well. The bottom-line is that not all open source is free, and not all free open source is good enough to make a difference for users.
 

Large companies don’t use open source tools

 
Open source tools, especially open source software, has been used by organizations of all sizes since the early 1990s. Corporate giants like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and many other companies use open source tools in some form. Open source software development is a big industry with an ever increasing number of developers.
 

Open source software aren’t secure at all

 
Many organizations refrain from using open source tools due to the misconception that they are less secure than proprietary software. This wrong notion is mostly due to the fact that the source code of an open source software is openly available to anyone who wants to tinker with it. This increases the likelihood of black hat hackers figuring out a vulnerability to exploit.

But this isn’t the whole truth. Contrary to public perception, open source codes also serve as a way for many open source experts to verify the integrity and security of the code i.e. security vulnerabilities are more likely to be detected, reported, and removed.
 

You can’t always count on support for open source software

 
It’s true that some open source software don’t have a long lifespan. These software “die” once the community backing them leaves them behind. It’s the community itself that provides the biggest support for open source technologies. It’s pretty much the same for proprietary software as well. The company that developed the software may simply stop providing support one day, and move on to a more lucrative project. Popular open source software with a reputation will likely still have a community backing it, ready to help anyone with technical issues.
 

Conclusion

 
These are but a few myths around open source software. It isn’t as unreliable as many people still seem to believe. It’s open source technology that powers quite a lot of popular platforms that have proven their worth across various industries. An enterprise can have a customized open source software developed to drive business growth efficiently and securely – something that can do the job just like a proprietary software can but more cost-effectively.