CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, revealed more information about Their Microsoft Alternatives project (MAlt), which started a year ago to fully migrate to open source software.
The Organization said in a blog post “MAlt’s objective is to put us back in control using open software. It is now time to present more widely this project and to explain how it will shape our computing environment”.
Also, Added, “The initial objective was to investigate the migration from commercial software products (Microsoft and others) to open-source solutions, so as to minimize CERN’s exposure to the risks of unsustainable commercial conditions”.
back to March, Microsoft revoked CERN’s “academic institution” status. under the new contract, licensing costs have increased more than tenfold. In response, CERN is about to enter a new phase of fully using the open source software in their environment with the first MAlt’s migrations.
The project’s principles of engagement are to:
- Deliver the same service to every category of CERN personnel
- Avoid vendor lock-in to decrease risk and dependency
- Keep hands on the data
- Address the common use-cases
he first major change coming is a pilot mail Service for the IT department and volunteers this summer, followed by the start of CERN-wide migration. In parallel, some Skype for Business clients and analog phones will migrate to a softphone telephony pilot.
Many other products and services are being worked on: evaluations of alternative solutions for various software packages used for IT core services, prototypes and pilots will emerge along the course of the next few years.
