Open Source

Intalio's mission is to develop a sustainable business model as a commercial open source company.

Source Code

The source code for Intalio|Works is available one of two ways.

• Download components from their respective open source communities.
• Subscribe to the Enterprise Edition.

Open Source Communities

Our open source strategy is to participate in existing communities (Apache, Eclipse) whenever possible, rather than creating our own open source community. We feel it is more efficient to donate code to existing communities whose purpose it is to oversee the management of open source projects and build communities to support them.

According to leading analyst firm Gartner, Intalio|Works BPMS is the first and only credible Open Source BPMS [Source]. Intalio|Works BPMS is the result of 10 years of research & development, with contributions from over 200 developers. Intalio|Works brings the very best open source technologies, together with an innovative business model, and delivers a platform that end-users, independent software vendors, and system integrators can safely rely on to develop their respective businesses.

Over the past 10 years, Intalio initiated 7 of the 56 top-level projects currently managed by the Apache Software Foundation, including Apache ODE. Intalio also contributed the STP BMPN Modeler, which is now a top-level project managed by the Eclipse Foundation. Intalio was the founder BPMI.org, and a co-author of BPM standards such as BPMN and BPEL. We also started BPMLab.org, as a place to gather references to open source projects that support the BPMN and BPEL standards.

Most Intalio's open source projects are now hosted on intalio.github.com, including SimPEL, SingleShot, and Tempo.

COSMO

Intalio|Works BPMS Enteprise Edition is licensed under the Commercial Open Source Model (COSMO) originally created by Intalio. This model gives customers the following benefits: access to 100% of the source code, rights to modify the original source code without having to contribute any modifications back to the community, and rights to use the original source code in perpetuity after the first year of subscription, even if the subscription is not renewed.

The COSMO model enables customers to use enterprise-class software with a pay-as-you-go approach. Pick a product based on industry standards (BPMN and BPEL) and available free of charge (Intalio|Works BPMS Community Edition), send your staff to training to learn about standards and best practices for customer-led BPM projects, start building a Proof of Concept on your own, get it deployed in a controlled production environment, make some changes to the process, see for yourself if it works, and if it does — and only then — call the vendor and buy a subscription for the product's commercial edition (Intalio|Works BPMS Enterprise Edition) in order to get a single throat to choke should anything go wrong down the road. Doing so, you’ll learn something of value, save your company a lot of time and money, and get the best out of BPM.

The COSMO model also provides customers with purchasing security in two main regards. First, companies buying proprietary software are locked to a vendor. If that vendor goes out of business, or is acquired by another company, there is no guarantee that the product will continue to be further developed, or even maintained. With the COSMO model, the customer has the rights to retain and modify the software in perpetuity. Through partnering Open Source bodies like the Apache Software Foundation and the Eclipse Foundation, as well as Intalio's own community, the product has the backing of tens of thousands of dedicated experts. Second, the software license used for Intalio|Works BPMS Enterprise Edition provides indemnification to customers, should any Open Source component embedded into the software violate any third-party IP.