While the business benefits of effective open source consumption are well known, enterprise organizations are seeking mentoring and proven techniques on how to proactively harness the power of open source and overcome organizational objections. And, we’ve found that one of the most effective ways to reap maximum benefits from open source products and open source development practices is to implement policies around adoption, consumption and management of technologies, and community development practices.

Red Hat is proud to announce the Red Hat Pathway to Open Source Enablement consulting service to help our customers formalize enterprise open source adoption, development, and governance strategies. This strategic consulting service gives customers the tools and processes to more safely, formally, and effectively consume open source, mentors customers in effectively collaborating with or contributing to open source communities, and guides customers in creating strategic open source projects and communities.

Red Hat Pathways are strategic consulting engagements that help enterprise organizations evaluate where they are and what they need in order to achieve business goals. Drawing from critical business acumen, proven best practices, and unparalleled open source technical expertise, each Pathway guides clients through a custom actionable process designed to create value at every step.

Red Hat Pathway to Open Source Enablement consulting service begins with an assessment of  the organization’s business goals, the maturity of IT infrastructure and open source software adoption, as well as an exploration of open standards practices. During the initial phase, a Red Hat consultant will:
 

• introduce open source concepts and examine different open source approaches and opportunities that can address the organization’s desired level of maturity;
• assess current processes, infrastructure, and capabilities to determine readiness to accept and scale open source;
• measure baseline open source competency in areas of governance, community participation, and senior leadership support, and;
• develop a strategic open source blueprint that details open source maturity analysis as well as delivers actionable recommendations for governance and policy, community planning, tools and training, and additional IT efficiency.

Red Hat plans to work with the community to launch an upstream working group for common open source consulting artifacts. Examples of this are expected to include the definition and development of metrics such as an open source project maturity index. The output of these upstream activities will also be leveraged as part of the Red Hat Pathway to Open Source Enablement consulting service.

The strategic business consulting service is scheduled to be available in North America beginning in July 2012, and we expect to expand into additional regions.  

For more information about the Red Hat Pathway to Open Source Enablement consulting service, please email oss-enablement-info@redhat.com.