Don’t forget that Red Hat’s JBoss Middleware is part of the Shared Economy, too.

Whether it’s Uber, Airbnb, Waze, Snapchat, or Spotify, the new shared economy is the way of the future, or at least it seems so right now. In 2017, the Shared Economy is going to be a buzzword. What will happen to the Shared Economy under the U.S government’s new administration, what about taking Shared public in the Snapchat IPO, how is the Shared Economy going to deal with regulation issues? Regardless of the specific ponderings of the day, the Shared Economy is more often than not, at the front of most of them - just read the latest copy of Fortune Magazine. According to Investopedia, the definition of the Shared Economy is  “... an economic model in which individuals are able to borrow or rent assets owned by someone else. The sharing economy model is most likely to be used when the price of a particular asset is high.” Huh, that sounds a little like Red Hat’s Open Source approach to Middleware, doesn’t it? I know it’s a big claim to make, but Open Source was one the originals of the Shared Economy, and Red Hat belongs in conversations on the topic. Further, Open Source is needed now more than ever.

Back the in ancient days of yore, when hand-smoothed, grey, sliding rocks calculated arithmetic problems and giant Poodles and Chihuahuas roamed the earth’s surface, hardware manufacturers supplied their software, free-of-charge. They did this because their machines would simply not operate without a set of procedures. Back then, no one gave thought to software piracy or any of the other seemly more complex issues of today; a certain software was needed to run its paired machine, and only small fee was paid to cover the costs of copying the needed software from its master. In the 1960’s software production costs started increasing, and free software proved to be the inverse of those production costs; it was simple economics, and the dark ages started creeping in.

It is often said that many things in life move in a circular motion - keep your old stuff from the 70’s, there’s a massive payday when you sell your old junk in the future. Technology is actually not as different in certain ways. Fast forward a couple years or so through the GNU Project, and a peculiar Finnish fellow with glasses named Linus Torvalds, and it looks like the era of light and free software may be back. What is old is now new again and Open Source, one of the original forms of the Shared Economy, can solve a lot of today’s problems. Just like Snapchat, or Airbnb, Red Hat’s JBoss Middleware needs to be part of the conversation on the Shared Economy. Why is it needed today more than ever? Well, I’m fixin’ to tell ya, as one of our former presidents used to say. Here’s a few thoughts...

Better Security, Together.

Unless you live under one of the hand-smoothed, grey, sliding objects of yore, security is most likely one of your first concerns in a piece of software nowadays. Open Source is traditionally bashed for a lack of security from those who aren’t thining outside of the box. What is more secure than thousands of developers across the globe continually testing your software? JBoss Middleware utilizes assets in the form of borrowed, collective human intellectual resources to remedy security concerns.

Stay Up To Date, Together.

As odd as it may seem, sometimes people ask me for advice on life’s problems. I’m not exactly sure what makes them so positive that I know what I’m doing, but I often respond that unless someone is either dead, or dying, it isn’t really a huge problem in the first place! Seriously though, relevance is one of the keys to life. As Niccolo Machiavelli noticed, availability is paramount and you’ve gotta be on the scene. Sound familiar? If so it’s because Open Source isn’t that different. Our world is evolving at an increasingly rapid pace with each passing day, and our version of Kaizen though Open Source is becoming more and more needed. With JBoss Middleware, you can the harness the power of collective human intellectual resources in order to stay with the times and get the latest software updates. Besides, someone once said if I have an idea and you have an idea and we trade ideas, we both have two ideas - let’s innovate together and keep you on top of the times, welcome to the machine.

Lower Costs and Eliminate Waste, Together.

Okay, let’s get our heads out of the clouds for a second here and get down to brass tacks: unless you already utilize Open Source, your IT is probably costing you a lot of money. Excess spending makes for waste in your value chain. As things get more complicated, a scope-creep will likely ensue, and your bills are only going to get larger. Them’s the breaks, kiddo; scarcity is a basic human condition, and trade-offs are a thing, so your budget is a zero-sum gain in that sense. As we know, the Shared Economy comes into its own when costs are high. Costs, like your Middleware IT solutions. So, why not harness the power of people and collective intellectual assets in the Shared Economy to lower your costs? That’s what happened in the hotel industry, that’s what happened in the transportation industry, and that’s what happened with your Middleware. Money is simply a tool to be used strategically, a good deal is a good deal, and you can do better for cheaper thanks to the power of people. You’re now leaner than before thanks to Red Hat JBoss Middleware and the Shared Economy. Boo-yeah, and you’re welcome.

I would say that one could think of at least a couple more advantages to Red Hat’s Open Source Middleware, but what I’m trying to say here is that we utilize human capital to create a better world in terms of value too, and we’ve been doing it for quite awhile now.

Marcus Aurelius wrote in The Meditations, “Humans have come into being for the sake of each other...”. At Red Hat, we agree, and that’s why we share. Waze harnesses the power of human resources for traffic updates, Uber for transportation, and Red Hat JBoss Middleware harnesses the power of human resources for your IT. With this new Shared Economy, the cheese looks to have moved. I can’t be so arrogant as to say exactly how the cheese moved. Maybe Linus knows, maybe you can Crowdsource that answer, or you could even try a book - a book called The End of Power by Moises Naim might start you heading in the right direction. The only thing that I can tell you for sure is where you can find a pretty sweet slice of that cheese: it’s here at Red Hat JBoss Middleware. Mmmm… Open Source Mozzarella…