Blames diversity of IT landscape, not open source

The city of Munich (Germany) has published the first part of a report on improving the city’s IT performance. The report by Accenture, a consultancy, has found that the city uses a great many software applications, making its IT too complex.

The interim report does not point to problems with Munich’s decision to predominantly use free and open source software, including on workstations. Nonetheless, the city’s desktop has problems. These are caused by the diversity of desktop hardware and peripherals, and the ageing IT infrastructure, which causes problems with upgrades and configuration changes.

The advisers suggest that modernisation of the city’s network, improvement of mobile access and further consolidation will improve the situation.

Server-side

The consultants report no problems or criticism with the use of open source on servers, for development and for enterprise solutions. Here, the situation is comparable to what is common in many other public administrations and in the private sector, they note.

Commenting on the interim report, Florian Roth, leader of the city’s Green Party wrote on his Facebook page that the report confirms that the use of open source is not the issue here. He recommends that the city continues to centralise its IT management. Currently, the city combines central IT management with decentralised IT units.

The final report is expected by the end of June.

More information:

Süddeutsche Zeitung news item (in German)
Heise news item (in German)
Golem op-ed (in German)
OSOR news item