Anyone who's worked in the IT field is familiar with Microsoft applications. For years Microsoft ran many offices, through their desktop software, networking applications, firewalls, mail servers (microsoft exchange) and on and on the list goes.

Open Source has always existed, ever since Wozniak wrote the first operating system and started to share it on the Apple I. But I think that for the longest time most people in IT were afraid of Open Source - and there were some good reasons. People felt that an open platform meant you were more likely to get hacked and viruses - if everyone can see an application's vulnerabilities, anyone can get in - right?

Well now, Open Source Software is taking over, in a big way. IT managers and those in decision making positions are realizing (through much education by open source advocates) that this type of development actually makes applications more secure, because more peer review by developers fixed more bugs, and white-hat hackers supplied their knowledge to vulnerabilities.

Now we're beginning to see open source running some of the most complex and corporate infrastructures in the business information field to-date. Big systems such as Cloud Linux, and android are using Open Source technologies

Open Source is becoming the lynch pin to business technologies. Cloud computing will use Open Source, Analytical Systems will too. Open Source is currently poised to become the premiere and preferred platform for building information systems. Even Microsoft has added Enterprise Data system Hadoop to it's cloud application Azure.

Open source isn't just a technology, it's a way of life to developers and IT professionals, and I can only see it continuing to take over the proprietary space as more and more of these applications and developers are empowered to be able to write code to help applications talk to each other.

Introduction

A business process describes the the steps followed by a company or organization to produce a particular product or service. With the advent of the Internet and the advancement of other information systems, automating and improving business processes in an effort to reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve quality has become a major goal for companies around the globe. Product managers are seeking to implement new modern technology in their business processes. Information and communication technologies have made these sorts of projects and undertakings successful and useful. Not only that, but they have opened up a whole new business front for businesses to actually be able to sell information service technologies as a service and product. (Christoph, 2011). Information technology staff has been tasked to find ways to utilize the information data collected by their various systems to apply this critical data in a way that helps to meet the goals of lower cost, increased production, and quality standards (Allen, 2011).

I've come to the conclusion through observing my friends, family, and other great characters in society that Passion is one of the greatest attributes that an individual can have. According to the dictonary, Passion is defined as "any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate". I think it goes without saying that passion is a catch-all adjective that can be used to describe many great "innovation heros", I think of people like Steve Jobs, Richard Stallman, Steve Wozniak, and how these people are all great examples of where passion has fueled great innovation, invention, and sparked changes in entire industries. It's special.

I believe that passion is essential to truly doing well at something. If you can think of time where you've ever been in a class you truly did not care for the subject, you might have done okay getting a grade in the class, maybe you even got an A. But I'll bet you didn't enjoy it at all. I know that really rings true for me. But then think of a class or activity where you really did enjoy what you were doing it. It doesn't matter if you're the best at it. You do "well enough", because you're passionate about it. 

Brilliance is built on this sort of passion. You can only be so smart before you start tripping over yourself. Then you really need to find something you're passionate about to put all your smarts into. Unless you can find that niche, you might be good, but you'll never be great. I suspect there are people who go their entire lives being good, but feeling like they have potential to do better, but never reaching that plateau. I can't think of much that would be more sad than that.

I think entrepreneurs understand this well. People who create startups are probably some of the most passionate people in the American Society today. Passionate about their new product or service, and getting others to invest dollars into an idea is something that almost requires a passion to make it successful. 

Passion is just a really cool emotion, it creates, invents, investigates, and builds. If you don't know what you're passionate about, I would challenge you to take a step back from whatever you're currently doing, find a time and place where your job or hobbies really captivated all your emotions, where you felt invested emotionally, maybe even spiritually, in what you're doing. That's where your passion truly lies. 

Be passionate, it will lead you to success.