Free software changed the world. Just think about the huge amount of open-source development that surrounds us and that we “interact” with every day. Some of them, as well known as Android, are literally in the palm of our hands. Others, such as Kubernetes, although known only in the technology industry, play a vital role in industries such as finance, medical, retail or industrial. Also the public sector.

Town halls, state offices and companies, autonomous communities… more and more public institutions understand and use the benefits offered by open source software to improve their processes and offerings better services to citizens. To take a closer look at how this technology enables them to go further, MCPRO together with Red Hat celebrated “Open source as an engine of digital transformation in public administration” a powerful round table where, accompanied by representatives of some of the main state administrations in our country, we wanted to discuss the possibilities that open source offers in these organizations, what are its main advantages and how it is used in the cloud or remote environment when modernizing applications.

participated in this interview Miguel Angel Diaz(Head of Business Development at Red Hat), Mario Ruiz Blanco(Red Hat Sales Manager), Jaime Alvarez of Toledo(Red Hat Public Sector Key Account Manager), Cristina Cid Gil (Deputy Director for Technology Transformation at Correos), Miguel Angel Rodríguez Ramos (Deputy General Manager for Systems and Technology of the Madrid City Council), Enrique Belda Esplugues (Deputy Director General for Information Systems and Communications for Security at the Ministry of the Interior), Angel Luis Sanchez Garcia(CTO Madrid Health Service – BE MORE), Valentine Garcia(Innovation Director Lantik SA), Oscar Torrero Ladrero(Technology and Systems Director at Aragonesa de Servicios Telemáticos – AST), Carlos Maza Frechin(Deputy Director for Information Technology and Communications of the Court of Auditors of Spain), Ana Garcia Ranera (Deputy General Manager of Madrid Digital Solutions);,Marian Domingo (Director of Infrastructure and Technology at Aena; Jorge Ordas Alonso (deputy general director for management and mobility technology of the General Directorate of Transport) a Vincent Petruzzella Lacave(Deputy Director General for Utilization of the AEAT Department).

In addition, Gustavo de Porcellinis Mamberto (Commercial Director) participated on behalf of Total Publishing Network. and Rodolfo de Juana de Matthaeis (Director of MCPRO). Many of the conclusions reached during the event revolved around how a commitment to open source software allows administrations to be more agile in their hiring process.

In this sense, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez Ramos summed up the feelings of many present when he highlighted the “accelerating” nature that this type of technology can have: “usually in digital transformation we talk about how important agility is, but when we go to In the public sector is one of big problems that we have to be agile about, public contracts. In the case of open source software Being able to start working with an open/community version allows you to start developing a project and ensure its growth in an already supported way. over time without any interruption”.

In fact, almost everyone agreed when it came to emphasizing the importance of the community surrounding this development, both in launching and in standardizing or improving software security. The community, which, as Mariano Domingo or Mario Ruiz Blanco points out, is not so much made up of free software enthusiasts, but mainly of technology companies for which the support of the Open Source ecosystem is a strategic part of their business.

That this community is the one that enables the standardization of technologies and practices is important because, as Ana García Renera points out, “it is the ability to standardize technologies. and processes, allowing us to be more agile because when consensus is reached, we all win. If good practice is developed in another administration, it is very easy to transfer it”. “Plus,” he points out, “it’s easier to find resources from programmers in the market that have experience with open source software rather than proprietary technology. At a time when it’s hard to attract talent, I think that’s a point that everyone should appreciate.”

How easy or difficult is it for a public body to go open source instead of entrusting IT management to proprietary software? As Carlos Maza explains, the first thing is to understand that with open source the paradigm changes: “Open source software has caused a cultural change in the IT department, which from the beginning faced big projects and started with very big projects.” smaller ones that have developed. It’s a cultural change towards a DevOps philosophy, to using containers, to incorporating elements like hybrid cloud…” But also, as Jorge Ordás adds, considering that IT departments may encounter resistance that stems from a lack of training. : “A lot of IT departments don’t know concepts like containers or Kubernetes. And that’s something that completely changes the paradigm.”

Of course, in this changing landscape, the support offered by companies like Red Hat is most appreciated, even if the use of unsupported software is completely free. But as many expose during the day, working with unsupported software can be a real “suicide”. This is something that testimonials like Cristina Gil’s prove when she explains, “Just because we’re pro-open source doesn’t mean there’s no complexity. In fact, nowadays the complexity is getting higher and higher. For example, we cannot find people in the market who are able to manage our Open Shift environment. In order to do this, we had to contract directly with Red Hat.

Supported software necessarily means that, as in the case of proprietary solutions, there are costs that the public administration must face in this case. What are these costs and how do they compare? Opinions in this case differ somewhat at our meeting. For example, Enrique Belda suggests that open source “is not only a more independent system, but because it has a wider community, it is less exposed to cost changes, so it is easier to find people and companies to support us.” Valentín García’s intervention on cost optimization was particularly interesting because he assured that in his case he not only managed to save, but that this cost saving, which has been happening since they decided to open source software, has translated into more innovation, more resources that we can devote to research and development” .

Among the benefits also flying over the discussion table were “the ability to modify the software and introduce changes to adapt to the specific needs of the public sector”; “the power to move from certain more or less direct ‘decision making’ to more open procedures in which there is more transparency in the use of resources”; or the very concept of “code auditability”.

While all stakeholders recognize these benefits as their own, most also emphasize that open source solutions still exist with proprietary solutions in their data centers, and that public administrations still have an interesting path to adoption. similar to what is produced in private firms. Partly because, according to some, it is still necessary to “industrialize open source”, and partly because the public entity in many cases depends on a reality that, as Ana García Ranera states, “depends a lot on who you are with.” “married” in the past, with “divorces” that can have more or less complicated consequences in both the technological and business areas…so even if we want to, sometimes the transition is difficult.”

Finally, they all emphasized that, thanks in large part to open source software, Spain has progressed at an enormous speed in e-government in recent years, and although some problems remain (“in many cases we should prioritize accessibility”), they assured that “today we would it was very difficult to find a procedure that could not be done online in Spain”