[Bacula-devel-fr] Bacula Status + professional services initiative

[Kern S. <ke...@si...>]

Hello,

Sorry this is a bit long ...

2.2.0 release should be soon:
I have just made the last source code changes to version 2.1.27 that I am 
planning before the 2.2.0 release.  Barring any new reported bugs, what is 
now in the SVN will be what is released, with the exception of a bit of work 
on the Release notes, and a review of the manual to ensure that we have 
documented all the new stuff.

IMO, the code is very stable and ready for production use (the latest SVN 
changes are not yet tested, but *should* have little or no impact).

The 2.2.0 release should occur any time from a week to a month from now.  The 
exact date depends on how it "feels" and whether or not someone tests Win32.  
I am considering not releasing the Win32 binaries with 2.20 since IMO they 
have not been sufficiently tested.  The old Win32 FD is compatible with 
2.2.0.  All that will be determined in the next week or two -- who knows, I 
may find enough energy to test Win32 myself.

I remind you that the major objectives of this release were (at least from my 
own efforts) to improve performance, and to add a nice graphical user 
interface. Those two objectives with a lot of help from Eric and Dirk have 
been attained.  The following items from the Projects List have been 
completed for 2.2.0:

Items Completed:
Item:   2   Implement a Bacula GUI/management tool.
Item:  18   Quick release of FD-SD connection after backup.
Item:  23   Implement from-client and to-client on restore command line.
Item:  25   Implement huge exclude list support using dlist
Item:  41   Enable to relocate files and directories when restoring
Item:  42   Batch attribute inserts (ten times faster)
Item:  43   More concurrency in SD using micro-locking
Item:  44   Performance enhancements (POSIX/Win32 OS file access hints).
Item:  40   Include JobID in spool file name


After version 2.2.0:
I plan to concentrate my personal efforts roughly 50/50 on two projects:

1. Implementing the framework to permit implementation of Projects List items
    1 (Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted file) and 6 (Implement Base
     jobs -- also called de-duplication).

2. Setting up professional support services for Bacula (i.e. a company).

I don't think the first item needs much explanation other than to say that 
once the framework is implemented, adding the specific features will be minor 
subprojects.

The second item is something I have been discussing from time to time for 
about a year now.  The background on that is that in the beginning Bacula was 
used by a small group of more or less independent sysadmins.  I had a lot of 
pleasure working with them, helping them get Bacula installed, and 
implementing features they wanted.  

Now however, Bacula is being used more and more by enterprises (here I use 
this in a broad sense meaning: governments, universities, and corporations) 
which have some rather specific needs that are currently largely unfulfilled 
by the market place and by the Bacula Open Source project:

1. Enterprise needs require more high end features in Bacula
2. Enterprises are not willing (or cannot) make
    donations or pay for developement to an Open Source project (there are 
    a very small numer of exceptions to this -- and thanks to those who are
    exceptions).
3. Enterprises can and do pay *very* hefty maintence fees sometimes for
    support of Open Source software, and some are willing to pay  for certain
    development providing it is with a "company".
4. Many enterprises cannot or are reluctant to use Open Source software unless
    they have professional support contracts.
5. Other enterprises cannot or are reluctant to use Open Source software
    unless they have professional support contracts with the software
    supplier.
6. It is hard to find Open Source developers for a project like Bacula, but
    it is easy to hire them.
7. Bacula has now become a big project (especially with version 2.2.0)

So after a lot of thought, as I have previously discussed, at least in part, 
on these lists, I have come up with the idea of creating a company to ensure 
that there is professional support for Bacula.  

To the best of my knowledge there is no parallel to the proposed company in 
the Open Software world. The nearest examples are Red Hat and MySQL, yet this 
company will be different. One unique aspect is that rather than retaining 
full control over the Bacula source code and putting it into this company, I 
have transferred its administration to the FSFE.  I expect to see the Bacula 
project continue much as it is working hand in hand with the new company. 

The company service offering is planned to be:

1. Bacula Software Installation and Support Services
with emphasis on providing level 3 support services to independent level 2 
Bacula support providers.  Only in the case where no level 2 (or special 
cases) do we expect to supply level 2 services.

For those of you who are not familar with support levels:
- Level 1 => in house support personnel
- Level 2 => a company that supplies general support to level 1
    support  personnel of their clients.
- Level 3 => support provided to professional support level 2 companies
    directly from the product developers.

2. Education and Certification Services
 These education and certification services are designed for:
  1. Companies who wish to certify their own support or learn
       how to do it.
   2. Individual consulatants.
   3. Third party support providers

3. Consulting Services
This should provide a means for companies to request and pay for development 
of specific features.  

The bottom line is that after a lot of discussions, I think this company can 
provide a nice interface between the Bacula project and independent Bacula 
service providers.  Though I haven't gone into all the details, I don't see 
any conflict of interest with this project and the Bacula project -- in fact, 
IMO, it is probably the fastest way to have a way to employ people to add 
features to Bacula, no is there a conflict with large or small companies that 
supply consulting or support services. There is a small amount of overlap, 
but in general, we have found that existing support service organizations 
need some sort of contractual relationship with the Bacula project in order 
to satisfy their corporate customers, and that is the role we wish to fill.

If all goes well, the company will be formed in the next few months, and will 
be in operation by the end of the year.  At the moment, aside from myself, 
there are three other founders located in Switzerland, France, and Germany, 
and we are still looking for two or three more.  Our current number of 4 is 
what we all consider the bare minimum to make the company work.  We believe 
that it can be self-funding (each founder putting in a part of the capital 
and their manpower) and that at the end of the first year it will be 
profitable.  If the concept works here in Europe, we will expand to the US 
within a year or two.

The formation of such a company means a number of changes:

1. The development of Bacula will slow down for a period of about 6-9 months 
during the formation and initial running of the company, then should 
gradually get back to the current speed and over time if the company is 
successful, there should be a significant increase in the "contributions" to 
Bacula development.

2. Bacula project development will concentrate a bit more on Enterprise needs.

3. The Bacula project will remain largely unchanged.

4. In the near future the Bacula project will no longer be providing binaries.  
They will be available for free to individuals, contributors, and charitable 
organizations through the professional web site.

5. Professional support contracts will be possible (mostly through existing 
third party support organizations) or directly with the new company.

6. Bacula professional services will have a certification procedure, which 
will guarantee a minimum compentency level (provided you work with certified 
engineers or support services).

7. Enterprises will be able to contracturally fund specific development if 
desired.  We have a *strong* preference that all development be integrated 
into the Open Source code base.  I.e. we are not interested in proprietary 
development.

At this point, we have a general corporate overview that will be posted on the 
corporate website once the corporation is created.  We also have a proposed 
fee structure.  We believe that we have defined a win-win situation that will 
benefit everyone currently working with Bacula including hardware 
manufacturers and future Bacula users.  The losers (if there must be such) 
will be the large commercial backup software companies that are currently 
overcharging for their license fees.

That is it in a nutshell.  

As part of this initiative, I have been visiting a few Bacula users.  If you 
are a large professional service provider or a bank or big name company, or 
otherwise a big Bacula user and you are located in Europe, I would possibly 
like to visit your company for a day to explain this concept and more 
importantly to learn what you find missing in Bacula (the program or the 
services).  If this interests you, please contact me directly off-list.

As mentioned, we are still looking for a few additional "founders" that have 
Bacula experience (sysadmin, installation, running a Bacula installation, or 
programming) and over the next two years would like to work for a company 
such as what I have mentioned above.  If that is your case, and you live in 
continental Europe, please contact me directly off-list.

Best regards,

Kern