Case Study: Janus Software Wants to Establish Itself as "Competitor of Oracle"

Overview

Janus Software was founded in 1999 as a company offering services based on open source software. Today, the company's main activity centres on the open source database Firebird. Due to the increasing popularity of Firebird as an alternative to Oracle databases, the company business has grown significantly during the last two years. The paper illustrates some of the challenges and opportunities of open source based business models. It also shows how open source companies use the Internet in combination with their product for marketing purposes.