The popularity of cloud storage is growing rapidly, and few would deny that open source technology is driving individual and business users to the clouds in droves. Yet enterprise adoption decisions are often hindered by competing technologies for public and private clouds. Often, it is less a question of open or closed source and more an issue of service and cost.

Security and privacy concerns may be far outweighed for many users by the convenience and appeal of the cloud, but users need to view cloud access as more than just another storage utility on the desktop. That’s according to Derek Labian, CEO of cloud storage service MediaFire. Instead, cloud users need to focus on cloud performance and application functionality, Labian suggests.

Software quality is a topic close to most developers’ hearts, whether they work with open source or proprietary code. Assessing quality, however, isn’t always a simple matter. As a result, several efforts have sprung up to tackle the challenge, including the Coverity Scan project. Coverity began work in 2006 on the open source project, which is a joint endeavor with the Department of Homeland Security.

NoSQL might well be called “the little database engine that could.” It is quietly proving it is on track as Big Data transitions to cloud-based data storage and management. NoSQL is increasingly considered a viable alternative to relational databases, but it is still a relatively small category in a growing world of database technologies.

In a world of mostly proprietary video platform developers, success for an open source startup requires very sharp cutting-edge technology. For Kaltura, part of the secret has been making sure that competitive edge is never dulled by settling for being just good enough. Adding a dual-license option often makes the difference between a free download and real sale.

Does it make good business sense to migrate corporate database software from costly proprietary platforms to free open source solutions or low-cost commercial open source replacements? The answer is a no-brainer, said EnterpriseDB CEO Ed Boyajian. Founded in 2004, EnterpriseDB began on a quest to disrupt the database stranglehold of proprietary database products.

Open source software is a passion for some and a business for others. Daniel Robbins was driven by a need to make Linux better than he found it. Robbins created two Linux distros: Gentoo and Funtoo. He created Gentoo Linux during his time as a systems administrator. Funtoo, meanwhile, is a project that Robbins created to extend the technologies for Gentoo.

Graphs are everywhere. You find them on websites adding social capabilities. Telecommunications companies use graphs to personalize customer services. Innovative bioinformatics researchers, and other organizations are adopting graph databases to model and query connected data. Neo Technology has pioneered graph databases since 2000.