With the success of companies like MySQL, JBoss, Cygnus and SleepyCat, open source software has introduced major changes to the way corporate IT adopts new technology. Yet open source business practices have a long way to go before the industry as a whole is fully embraced by CIOs.

In particular, I believe that the patchwork quilt of licenses and business practices among open-source vendors is a major barrier to enterprise adoption of open source. Vendor standardization on a simple and commercially attractive business model will help drive broad corporate acceptance of open source software.

After attending the Open Source Think Tank held in February, 2008 at the Silverado resort, I am convinced that a best-practices model is emerging for enterprise open-source software vendors. In honor of the think tank event, I am dubbing these practices the Silverado Rules for Open Source Success:

Open-source vendors should adopt the following best practices to optimize community participation while developing a viable commercial business:
1. Fix the last mile problem
2. Optimize for community and commercial growth
3. Play by the community rules
4. Implement role-based pricing
5. Enable on-site and on-demand deployment
6. Adopt a dual license strategy based on AGPL (GPLv3 + affero)

Following these rules may not lead to guaranteed business success, but ignoring them may well lead to failure! For the complete write-up on the Silverado Rules for open Source Success, go to my KeeneView blog.