DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Please enter at least three characters to search
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Refcards
Trend Reports

Events

View Events Video Library

Zones

Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Because the DevOps movement has redefined engineering responsibilities, SREs now have to become stewards of observability strategy.

Apache Cassandra combines the benefits of major NoSQL databases to support data management needs not covered by traditional RDBMS vendors.

The software you build is only as secure as the code that powers it. Learn how malicious code creeps into your software supply chain.

Generative AI has transformed nearly every industry. How can you leverage GenAI to improve your productivity and efficiency?

Related

  • Securing the Software Supply Chain: Chainguard Builds on Foundational Innovation
  • Key Developer Concepts and Tools in Software Supply Chain Security
  • Binary Code Verification in Open Source World
  • Log4Shell: A Case for Trusting Open Source – With Guardrails

Trending

  • Proactive Security in Distributed Systems: A Developer’s Approach
  • How To Build Resilient Microservices Using Circuit Breakers and Retries: A Developer’s Guide To Surviving
  • Tired of Spring Overhead? Try Dropwizard for Your Next Java Microservice
  • Introduction to Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
  1. DZone
  2. Popular
  3. Open Source
  4. Decoding Business Source Licensing: A New Software Licensing Model

Decoding Business Source Licensing: A New Software Licensing Model

More companies are pursuing a software licensing model that sits somewhere between open source and proprietary licensing.

By 
Tom Smith user avatar
Tom Smith
DZone Core CORE ·
Sep. 18, 23 · Analysis
Likes (3)
Comment
Save
Tweet
Share
4.1K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

Business source licensing (BSL) has recently emerged as an alternative software licensing model that aims to blend the benefits of both open-source and proprietary licensing. For developers and IT professionals evaluating solutions, understanding what BSL is and its implications can help inform licensing decisions.

What Is Business Source Licensing?

Like open-source licensing, BSL makes source code viewable and modifiable. This allows a community of developers to collectively improve the software. However, BSL applies restrictions on how the software can be used commercially. This provides revenue opportunities for the company publishing the software, similar to proprietary licensing.

BSL is often positioned as offering “the best of both worlds” — open collaboration on source code plus commercial protections. Companies like Percona, Cockroach Labs, and Confluent have adopted BSL models. But is this hybrid approach right for your organization?

The topic came up during a breakout session with customers at TIBCO Next. As TIBCO CTO Rajeev Kozhikkattuthodi notes, BSL represents an “open set of questions around the viability of operating both for vendors and for customers to operate open core businesses.” He cautions that “commingling of licenses is not necessarily a good thing” and predicts companies will avoid these “somewhat in-between sort of open core models.” 

Rajeev continues, "We really like to keep it simple and straightforward. There are going to be open-source technologies that we use, and we contribute back. Sure. Those are going to be under clean, compliant, open licensing models, right? We will give our enterprise customers commercial subscription models and those subscription models are going to be covered under the typical licensing license.  We do not see this mixed model licensing as a viable approach going forward."

Potential Benefits of BSL

Transparency and Security

Like open source, BSL provides full access to source code. This allows you to inspect components for security and quality. Rather than relying on opaque proprietary code, you can verify integrity yourself.

Community Contributions

Making source code accessible enables community contributions to improve software, as with open-source projects. This crowdsourced development can potentially accelerate innovation.

Flexibility

BSL offers some source code freedoms not permitted in closed-source proprietary software. This may provide more flexibility to modify and extend the software if desired.

Potential Drawbacks of BSL

Limited Rights

The commercial restrictions in BSL mean core freedoms of open-source software are forfeited. Your rights may be limited depending on the specific BSL terms.

Vendor Lock-In

Proprietary aspects of BSL can still lead to vendor lock-in risks. Transitioning between BSL solutions may be challenging if restrictions hinder compatibility.

Unproven Model

BSL is relatively new and unproven compared to established open-source and proprietary models. The risks versus rewards are still being evaluated in the marketplace.

Assessing BSL for Your Enterprise

When evaluating BSL-licensed technologies, focus on four key considerations:

Compatibility With Existing Systems

Will the BSL technology seamlessly integrate with your current landscape? Assess integration costs and risks.

Optimization for Your Environment

Is the technology tailored and optimized for enterprise-scale performance? Review benchmarks in context.

Consumability of the Technology

Analyze the usability, learnability, and adoption challenges. Can your team be productive quickly?

Vendor Relationships and Support

Research the provider’s reputation and customer relationships. Review their support model and SLAs.

Balancing the Trade-Offs

Every licensing model involves trade-offs. There are no hard and fast rules on whether BSL is universally better or worse than open-source or proprietary alternatives. The choice ultimately depends on your specific technical, business, and cultural constraints.

Some organizations may find BSL strikes the right balance of code transparency and commercial protections for their needs. Others may determine that traditional open-source or proprietary models are preferable.

By fully evaluating BSL in your context against other options, you can make the most informed licensing decision for your systems and organization. With a thorough analysis of the pros, cons and hidden costs, you can determine if this emerging approach is a fit or if tried-and-true models are the safer choice.

Here are some additional key things to know about business source licenses (BSLs):

  • BSL terms can vary: There is no standard BSL license. The specific rights and restrictions can differ significantly between BSL implementations. Carefully review the details.
  • Compliance complexity: Complying with BSL terms may require tight controls on commercial usage. This could increase auditing and compliance overhead.
  • Contribution clarity: The ability to contribute to BSL codebases may be unclear or limited. Some BSLs discourage community contributions.
  • Support uncertainties: With BSL, it may be unclear if community support or paid vendor support is ideal. There are pros/cons to both.
  • Licensing evolution: BSL is still evolving. License terms could change substantially in future iterations, disrupting adoption.
  • Hybrid licensing risks: Some BSL companies dual-license with open source and BSL. Misusing code between licenses can cause compliance issues.
  • Acquisition impacts: If a BSL company is acquired, license terms could change depending on new owner's policies.
  • Competitive concerns: BSL could raise antitrust issues if vendors collude on license terms. Regulatory impacts are untested.
  • Open core transitions: Some open source projects transition to BSL post-monetization. This can trigger community forks to stay open.

Overall, treat BSL with caution. View it as a work-in-progress model with uncertainties. Thoroughly evaluate potential pitfalls before adopting BSL-licensed technologies for your work or business.

Open source Software optimization security

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Securing the Software Supply Chain: Chainguard Builds on Foundational Innovation
  • Key Developer Concepts and Tools in Software Supply Chain Security
  • Binary Code Verification in Open Source World
  • Log4Shell: A Case for Trusting Open Source – With Guardrails

Partner Resources

×

Comments
Oops! Something Went Wrong

The likes didn't load as expected. Please refresh the page and try again.

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Support and feedback
  • Community research
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Core Program
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends:

Likes
There are no likes...yet! 👀
Be the first to like this post!
It looks like you're not logged in.
Sign in to see who liked this post!