Sugar 'n Spike in open source deal

Services start-up SpikeSource has certified open source customer relationship management (CRM) software from SugarCRM to run on the popular LAMP stack.

SpikeSource chief executive Kim Polese announced on Wednesday SugarCRM would distribute Spike Stack for Sugar Professional and resell Spike Net. The Spike Stack offers the Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP/Python software stack optimized for Sugar Professional, while Spike Net ensures users receive software updates.

Certification is based on a battery of 50,000 tests by SpikeSource that identify interdependencies and ensure interoperabilty between the SugarCRM software and the LAMP stack, and that are designed to help end users avoid spending time and money on their own integration.

SpikeSource claims PHP was updated 6,700 times in 2005, Apache was updated 2,965 times and MySQL updated 6,805 times creating numerous new interdependencies.

Polese, speaking at the Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) in San Francisco, said the deal "enabled customers to get out of the business of supporting the applications and to do what they do best."

Polese positioned her open source services company as an "intermediary" between the application providers and end users, filtering and managing changes to software. SpikeSource keeps abreast of changes in the LAMP stack by monitoring more than 2,000 RSS feeds, 227 mailing lists and 87 bug tracks.

Commenting on the SpikeSource strategy of partnering with application specialists around LAMP, Polese told OSBC: "We are building a relationship with leading projects and ISVs and reselling support. We can't become experts for every project in the sack but there are experts [who are] out there.

"We are making it easier to deploy and manage open source software," she said.®