Case Studies:
Having an Open Source Program Office

Comcast has two major divisions - the NBC broadcasting business and the cable delivery business. Comcast learned that both of its businesses had unique needs for an open source program office.

Dropbox was started and built on a foundation of open source code. But Dropbox did not always have a formal Open Source Program. This case study discusses the development of the open source function at Dropbox.

When you about how banks work, open source might not be at the top of your mind. But more and more companies—including those in the financial sector—have learned that open source software is often more reliable and secure than closed source.

Autodesk is a traditional software company that has also embraced open source, as shown by its large and increasing presence on Github (at https://autodesk.github.io/). In this case study, Guy Martin (@guyma) talks about developing the open source program.

Salesforce is well-known in the enterprise for its Software-as-a-Service offering. Many people don't know that open source is a key part of what keeps Salesforce innovating.

As the largest open source company in the world, Red Hat is all-in on open source. This case study describes some of the lessons learned over two decades of working in the open source community.

This open source office case study comes from Verizon Media (formerly Oath). Through its predecessor companies, Verizon Media has a long history with open source.

SAP’s climb to higher visibility is a sign of its continued commitment to excellence in open source. Peter Giese, director of SAP’s Open Source Program Office and Michael Picht, chief development architect, contributed this case study.

Our Open Source Program Guides cover case studies from the industries leading open source programs. This case study features another well-known name: Uber.

It may be surprising to some that Microsoft is now one of the biggest contributors to open source. But that evolution was the result of deliberate work - and a thoughtful open source program.

"Open source is core to our engineering DNA. We believe that sharing our code and even hardware designs accelerates the pace of innovation in the world." Christine Abernathy, Open Source Developer Advocate at Facebook, features in this case study of the well-known tech giant.

Our next open source office case study comes from SanDisk, the maker of computer storage equipment. Open source is a key part of SanDisk's entire production pipeline.

This case study features Chris Aniszczyk (@cra) who established the Open Source Program Office at Twitter and is now the Executive Director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.

This case study features Benjamin VanEvery (@bvanevery) and Nicholas Zakas (@slicknet), who oversee the open source activities at Box. They see their open source program as an extension to the type of work Boxers do every day.

Yahoo was another initial member of the TODO Group. This case study was provided by Gil Yehuda (@gyehuda), who is in charge of open source at Yahoo!.

This is the fourth in a series of case studies from TODO Group members, explaining why each company is committed to open source software. This case study was provided by Brandon Keepers (@bkeepers), who previously headed open source efforts at GitHub (now part of Microsoft).

Walmart was one of the initial members of the TODO Group, a group of companies founded to share the benefits of having an open source program. This case study was provided by Dion Almaer (@dalmaer) for the TODO Group.