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Open Source Product Innovation and Marketing Collaboration

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According to Wikipedia, “Innovation in its modern meaning is a new idea, creative thoughts, new imaginations in the form of device or method. Innovation is also often viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs or existing market needs. Such innovation takes place through the provision of more effective products, processes, services, technologies or business models that are made available to markets, governments and society.”

Personally, I like the use of the term “more effective” above. It says something important which is often missing in open source products. It’s not good enough to only write beautifully-engineered technology, because that’s often not what counts as more effective in the eyes of those who buy. We need to think through the whole context outside of engineering – the processes, the services, the business models etc – and we need to ensure that the big picture looks and feels more effective overall. Read more

In celebrating “Digital Sovereignty”, we will be judged by the quality of the software we produce, not our fine words.

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Crust Technology recently had the pleasure of taking part in the Univention Summit in Bremen, Germany. The Univention Corporate Server (UCS) is a leading platform for cost-efficient operation and easy administration of server applications and entire IT infrastructures. It is both self-hosted and open source and is used by many recognisable, brand-name organisations. UCS is an excellent OS base upon which to build your Digital Sovereignty, being practical, feature complete and supportive of multi-vendor environments.

Digital Sovereignty is a complex term, implying unimpeded access to the software code (i.e. 100% open source), default support and promotion of federated architectures, control of data location and consistent cross-jurisdictional regulation. While vendors such Univention point the way at the infrastructural level, software manufacturers at the application layer must pick up the baton with equal enthusiasm and determination.

In practical terms, what might this mean for software application vendors?

  1. Be 100% open
    This means no tricks or games. Every line of code must be available to the using or hosting organisation. But it goes even further than that – application architectures must be clear, well-documented and not a source of data lock-in themselves.
  1. Easy E-Migration
    The cost of migrating away from a solution, self-hosted or otherwise, must be as low as possible. In other words, the software must be built with recognition of the principle that the using organisation has a fundamental and exclusive right to “own” all of their data and that, should they wish, this data can be moved away from the platform easily.
  2. Embrace Standards
    From security to communication to API’s, software must be standards-based and must, in so far as possible, facilitate federation with other software and services. Clouds should be capable of collaborating with eachother, irrespective of the language in which they are coded.
  3. User Experience (UX) must be excellent
    Good UX leads to strong adoption. Failing at this first hurdle is unforgiveable. It has now been proven umpteenth times that solutions with poor UX simply do not get adopted by a population of a meaningful size.

Credibility is key. Businesses and governments pushing for Digital Sovereignty must learn from history. It’s littered with defunct open source providers, who failed to deliver compelling alternatives to components of giant data-harvesting clouds and proprietary software manufacturers. To fail again would be to be laughed off the stage, while the use of data from our corporate champions, mittelstand (mid-sized economic actors) and small businesses drifts further and further from our control. The stakes are that high.

Do you want to take the first step to Digital Sovereignty? Give Univention’s UCS a try and set up Crust using their Univention App Center.

About Crust

Crust Technology Ltd, headquartered in Ireland, is the driving force behind the open-source Unified Work platform Crust, providing a flexible, self-hosted platform for your organisation to work and communicate internally while engaging with its customers, suppliers, partners and other third parties externally. Its integrated approach to identity, messaging and business logic delivers a simple-to-use yet extensible means for managing users and the applications they require every day, whether in the cloud, behind the firewall or a hybrid of the two. For more information, visit www.planetcrust.com or follow @Crusttech on Twitter.

DAASI International brings Crust to Univention Corporate Server

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Cork, 22 January 2020

We’re excited to announce that Crust, the open source Low Code, CRM and Service Automation platform is now available on the Univention Corporate Server (UCS) via the Univention App Center.

UCS, created by Univention, provides companies with a complete solution for the administration of IT infrastructures, applications, resources and users. With the addition of Crust in the Univention App Center, UCS users can easily add the entire Crust suite to their UCS instances. This includes:

Additionally, DAASI International, a German and European leader in Open Source Identity and Access Management has seamlessly integrated their didmos Single Sign-On offering with the advanced UCS Management system. DAASI International will be responsible for distributing the Crust platform on UCS and supporting all Crust customers.

“We are delighted to welcome the Crust platform to our App Center family” says Nico Gulden, Product Manager Apps at Univention. “We’re always on the look out for open source alternatives to major proprietary vendors that increase the options of choice for our users on their way to Digital Sovereignty.”

“As not just a partner of, but also an investor in Crust Technology, releasing the platform on Univention is a notable step for us” adds Peter Gietz, CEO of DAASI International. “It is becoming increasingly important that major applications treat the subject of identity as key to their success. Being available on UCS opens doors to markets that appreciate both customer and digital sovereignty by default.”

“Crust is very excited about this launch” says Niall McCarthy, CEO of Crust Technology. “Univention has been a leader in providing self-hosted technology in Germany and further afield for a number of years. A key strategic goal for Crust is to build and evolve to satisfy the growing and ever-more complex requirements of enterprise customers who demand feature sets which match traditional cloud providers while protecting their digital sovereignty.”

How to get Crust on Univention Corporate Server?

A free Crust trial can easily be installed via the Univention App Center inside UCS. If you don’t have UCS yet, you can visit https://www.univention.com/downloads/ to download it. A Crust subscription, starting at 24 euro per user per month (discounts are available), is needed after the free trial. For more information, please contact Crust at www.planetcrust.com/contact

About Crust

Crust Technology Ltd, headquartered in Ireland, is the driving force behind the open-source Unified Work platform Crust, providing a flexible, self-hosted platform for your organisation to work and communicate internally while engaging with its customers, suppliers, partners and other third parties externally. Its integrated approach to identity, messaging and business logic delivers a simple-to-use yet extensible means for managing users and the applications they require every day, whether in the cloud, behind the firewall or a hybrid of the two. For more information, visit www.planetcrust.com or follow @Crusttech on Twitter.

About DAASI International:

DAASI International is an expert in federated Identity and Access Management based on open source. Since its founding in 2000, the IT service provider from Tübingen, Germany deals with identity management, access control and directory service technologies for universities, public authorities and companies. In addition, DAASI International is actively involved in the field of Digital Humanities and participates in national and international research projects, including the digital research infrastructure DARIAH-DE. DAASI International’s range of services covers consulting, support, hosting, and software development.

About Univention:

Univention GmbH is a leading European manufacturer of open source products for the operation and management of IT infrastructure, headquartered in Bremen. Univention Corporate Server (UCS) can be used as a classic server solution in the cloud or in hybrid scenarios. UCS is an economical alternative to Microsoft server solutions and includes comprehensive Active Directory capabilities and an App Center that integrates and operates more than 90 enterprise solutions into existing IT environments.

Meet us at the Univention Summit

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We’re excited to announce we’re a sponsor of the Univention Summit, which is held on January 23 and 24 in Bremen, Germany. Together with our partner DAASI International we will presenting Crust at our stand.

What is the Univention Summit

The Univention Summit is a yearly event that attracts over 400 IT professionals from value-added resellers, cloud service providers, and software developers. They have in common that they all share interest in open-source. The venue is excellent for networking opportunities and knowledge transfer.

The organiser behind the event is Univention. Univention is the driving force behind the Univention Corporate Server (UCS). UCS provides companies with a complete solution for the administration of IT infrastructures, applications, resources and users. Soon Crust will be available on UCS via the Univention App Center, making it available to UCS users all over the world.

Lenny Horstink, the CMO of Crust, being interviewed at the Univention Summit 2019

Why should you visit the Crust stand?

  • You can meet some of the key people behind Crust. Niall McCarthy, CEO of Crust, Lenny Horstink, CMO of Crust, and Peter Gietz, CEO of DAASI International and partner of Crust, will be at the stand.
  • You can see Crust in action. A live demo will show you what Crust can mean for your company.
  • Swag 🙂 Get some Crust goodies for free!

You can drop by for a chat. Want to arrange a meeting before? Fill in the form below.

We’re looking forward to this event!