Open source has been a highly debated topic for many years, but people are quickly coming to the conclusion that although it is supposed to be free, in reality it is costing them a lot of money.  When training and support costs start adding up like with any software, you quickly come to realize that this is far from free.  This is why many companies came to a conclusion that open source works great as a building block or a starting point, but must be bundled up with proprietary elements to be successful.

Companies have quickly started to adapt to the new model of commercial open source.  This is where the combination of the best open source software and commercial software can be molded into one.  In this model you get the best of both worlds.  The code is all yours to do any changes or enhancements, but it comes with support and training from the provider.  The options here are unlimited for your company because you can chose to do work in house, but if the time or resources are not there, the provider would pick up the work for you.  With this model for your business you are in control of your own destiny and have all the support that is needed from the provider.  This will help you get where you need to be or where you want to be much faster.

The commercial open source model becomes very cost effective for your company.  In many cases when you purchase an out of the box proprietary software you are spending money on that companies future advertising and marketing, but with the commercial open source model most of your money is put back into the software for development and improvements across the board.  Commercial Open Source companies can do this because their marketing and advertising costs are very small and their customers can just download their product from their website.  In reality your company knows what they need and no out of the box software can match those needs completely.  Plus with open source you can have developers all across the world work on the code to improve your software and add ideas and solutions. 

The bottom line with commercial open source is that it is mostly sold by software companies that essentially only charge a convenience fee and not a license fee.  With this they are providing you with the software and support.  Usually this is packaged together with documentation and is ready to use.  Customers are then free to modify the source code in any way they want, but cannot resell it as their own.  This new model was developed for the need of companies that were paying high costs to their providers and not necessarily getting what they ultimately desired.  If your company is comfortable with controlling its own destiny with a little help from the provider if needed, then this is the model for you.  It is cost effective and in the end you come out with a product that you really want and design yourself.