Black Duck Blog

Claus von Riegen
Program Director, Technology Standards and Open Source
I recently blogged about the evolution of how SAP approaches open source. I was focusing on what has changed over the recent years and why. While our approach is generally much more open than in the past, the usage of open source in our products and our contributions to open source projects are still carefully managed. Customers expect full support and maintenance for software they receive from SAP, which is why it is important to manage the usage of open source from different perspectives. Does the respective component fit from a functional, architectural and strategic point of view? Can we accept and comply with the licensing terms? How can we provide the required product support long-term? Only if these and other questions can be answered satisfyingly with respect to our quality and product standards, we can actually integrate open source components into our products and can utilize the various benefits.

On May 11th, 2010 I will be a presenter in the “Open Source as a Strategic Business Enabler, A Case Study with SAP” webinar with Black Duck Software. Also presenting are my colleagues, Dr. Alexandra Cordes from our Global Legal department and Janaka Bohr from the Global Licensing department.  During the webinar we will review the benefits open source holds for development organizations, the management challenges it presents, and approaches for addressing the challenges.

Click here to reserve your space.

I, along with Black Duck, will be happy to answer any questions upfront.  Please post your comments and questions here.