[Evergreen-general] ILS Conversion Justification Questions

[Jason Etheridge]

Hi Wendell,

Another Equinoxer here.  In my opinion, the security question boils down to
one question: is security through obscurity better than security through
openness?  The consensus seems to be no, and there are other incentives
(usually monetary) that keep some code bases closed.

Other random thoughts, from another perspective, you can treat an open
source hosted solution the same way you can treat a proprietary solution,
in that you don't have to think about open source at all.  The difference
is that it's more difficult to become "vendor locked" going the open source
route, and the provider has to compete more on their merit and service than
on the pain and cost of migrating to a completely different software
platform.

>From a purity/philosophical standpoint, even proprietary vendors use open
source components.  I just feel that the free and open source ethos is more
aligned with the mission of libraries in general, and libraries have a
history of innovation with technology that open source can help facilitate.

-- Jason


On Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 10:35 AM Gragg, Wendell E <WGragg at bryantx.gov> wrote:

> Hello everyone.  This is my first post here, so if I am posting in the
> wrong place, please feel free to let me know.
>
>
>
> Our library system (3 branches) is considering a move from Polaris to
> Evergreen and we are going to need to jump through a number of hoops in
> this process, beginning with the point of my post, justifying the
> conversion.
>
>
>
> What we are looking at is using a hosted solution due to the fact that our
> city IT department will not allow us to have anything but a Windows based
> server. Currently, we have a production server, telephony server and a test
> server, all running Windows and MS SQL.
>
>
>
> Currently, we have approximately 204k bib records, around 49k patrons and
> an annual circ between 500-600k. Only two of our branches circulate.
>
>
>
> I have received quotes from three companies (Mobius, Equinox and Emerald)
> for hosting and migration services and all three would come well under the
> approximately 40k per year we are paying for Polaris maintenance, so
> financially it would make sense. What I need is justifications/reasons to
> convert to an open source ILS from a proprietary system.  What are the
> advantages, both theoretical and real world and the potential pitfalls?
> Has making such a conversion saved you time and effort in administration
> and operation of the system?
>
>
>
> One of our biggest hurdles in getting this approved is going to be the
> cyber security section of our city IT department.  They are quite
> aggressive and demanding (oh the stories I could tell…), so I will need to
> gather information on that too. Any advice there would be greatly
> appreciated, especially if you can impart any knowledge as to the security
> aspects of Evergreen and/or the hosting providers I mentioned.
>
>
>
> Please feel free to contact me off list if that is your preference.
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
>
>
> Wendell
>
>
>
> Wendell Gragg, MSIS
>
> Automation Services Supervisor
>
> Bryan+College Station Public Library System
>
> Bryan, TX
>
> 979-209-5613
>
>
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>
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