So, our support staff has recently fielded customer concerns regarding the use of Eclipse Open Source plugins.
Some of the concerns are surprising, but the rest are more annoying than anything else. Here's what we learned:
* Eclipse.org removed support from its sites for last year's Eclipse; enterprises that standardized using stable Eclipse versions must scramble to find archives of Mylyn and other projects
* Popular plugins created by one or two people sometimes forget to pay their DNS bill, so the software becomes unavailable or lost
* Some small shops change web hosting providers, and enterprise developers can no longer find where their favorite plugins live
* Open Source software is sometimes bought and taken off the market, or returns with a price tag
And while Open Source developers are the most important members of the software community, many popular projects, like AnyEdit, FindBugs and similar community driven projects are often operated by only one or a few architects who at a moment's notice could remove the software intentionally or otherwise.
The problem lay-in that these projects have come to a level of usage that is mission-critical in the enterprise. So we've provided our users with the most popular Eclipse packages, locked down, with each version number, inside the company firewall where outside forces can’t interrupt the business work flow.
Our solution, that Fortune 100 companies are currently using and can work for your enterprise as well, is called Secure Delivery Center; and for a broad understanding of its power please see these high level points:
* Manage tools behind your firewall in your “private cloud”
* “Lock down” Eclipse-based tool stacks with one click
* Generate full, customized installers for tool stacks
* Easy usage reporting on tools and open source compliance
* Manage multiple versions of software simultaneously
* Manage Eclipse, MyEclipse or both at once
Secure Delivery Center is ready out-of-the-box for installation, and it requires only a few, easy questions answered about company policies and software governance before acting as an inside-the-firewall Eclipse and MyEclipse management tool.
Granularity in its reporting give a clear and concise understanding of how Eclipse or MyEclipse are used, what tool stacks and versions work the best on each project, and which configurations are successful in project development.
SDC starts at only about $45 per developer. Contact sales(at)genuitec(dot)com for more details.