Thesis (MBA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / The objective of this research is to characterise the factors influencing Open Source Software (OSS) adoption decisions in South African organisations. OSS is used extensively throughout the world, but there is a large amount of fear, uncertainty and doubt surrounding decisions to adopt OSS. The research improved this situation by determining the adoption factors that are relevant to South African organisations. OSS adoption is influenced by individual and organisational technology adoption factors. An extensive literature revealed the technology adoption factors relevant to OSS adoption. Adoption factors identified in literature were localised to the South African context, taking into account both public and private sector organisations. The research has found that OSS adoption factors identified in literature are relevant in a South African context. Factors investigated include access to source code, adoption costs, software freedom and control, technological factors, support factors, organisational factors and environmental factors. An important factor in OSS adoption decisions is the choice between vendor and community based OSS and the skills and resource requirements. Choosing community based software requires additional training, skills and resources. Organisations should take into account the effect of OSS development methodology on adoption decision factors. Important adoption decision factors include software compatibility (open standards), compatibility different hardware platforms (cross platform capabilities) and software and hardware vendor independence. The research concludes with recommendations approaching OSS adoption decisions when considering the choice between OSS and proprietary software.

Thesis (MTech. degree in Computer Systems.)--Tshwane University of Technology, 2008 / Open source software (OSS) is becoming, increasingly, an alternative to proprietary software (PS), particularly in the global government sector. The main objective of this dissertation is to investigate the status of OSS implementation in the SA government by surveying 40 national departments and targeting Information Technology (IT) directors and managers. The contribution of this research study is an OSS implementation model (OSSI), which is proposed as a possible solution to improve the status of OSS usage in the SA government departments. In conclusion, the proposed model is evaluated against other available OSS models using the set criteria.

If you cannot measure, you cannot manage. This is an age old saying, but still very true, especially within the current South African cybercrime scene and the ever-growing Internet footprint. Due to the significant increase in cybercrime across the globe, information security specialists are starting to see the intrinsic value of logs that can ‘tell a story’. Logs do not only tell a story, but also provide a tool to measure a normally dark force within an organisation. The collection of current logs from installed systems, operating systems and devices is imperative in the event of a hacking attempt, data leak or even data theft, whether the attempt is successful or unsuccessful. No logs mean no evidence, and in many cases not even the opportunity to find the mistake or fault in the organisation’s defence systems. Historically, it remains difficult to choose what logs are required by your organization. A number of questions should be considered: should a centralised or decentralised approach for collecting these logs be followed or a combination of both? How many events will be collected, how much additional bandwidth will be required and will the log collection be near real time? How long must the logs be saved and what if any hashing and encryption (integrity of data) should be used? Lastly, what system must be used to correlate, analyse, and make alerts and reports available? This thesis will address these myriad questions, examining the current lack of log analysis, practical implementations in modern organisation, and also how a need for the latter can be fulfilled by means of a basic approach. South African organizations must use technology that is at hand in order to know what electronic data are sent in and out of their organizations network. Concentrating only on FreeBSD PF firewall logs, it is demonstrated within this thesis the excellent results are possible when logs are collected to obtain a visual display of what data is traversing the corporate network and which parts of this data are posing a threat to the corporate network. This threat is easily determined via a visual interpretation of statistical outliers. This thesis aims to show that in the field of corporate data protection, if you can measure, you can manage.

The Government of South Africa adopted a policy on Free Open Source Software (FOSS) in 2003. This policy requires all government entities to migrate their IT to open source. This adoption of the FOSS policy is based on evidence of potential FOSS contributions to economic development generally, and directly support South African economic development priorities. In spite of the adoption of this policy, rates of adoption of FOSS in the SA government are low. This is partly because there is a lack of documentation of successful cases of migration. In addition, there is no strategic management framework that managers can use as a guide for migration. This lack of documentation may result in managers in government finding it difficult to know how best to go about migrating to FOSS. A failure to address this problem will delay the take-up of FOSS, in spite of all its stated benefits. Evidence so far within the government of South Africa is that the adoption of FOSS is progressing rather slowly. Making use of a qualitative research method that combines grounded theory with a case study method in four South African Government organisations, this study develops a strategic management framework for IT migration to FOSS in the South African public service. The four organisations that were part of this study were: the National Library of South Africa; the Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development; the Electronic National Traffic Information System and the State Information Technology Agency. Data was collected using an open-ended interview guide. A strategic management framework for Information Technology migration to FOSS will assist the Government of South Africa with the better implementation of its FOSS policy. The framework will provide guidance to public sector managers regarding how the process of migrating can best be managed. Content analysis is used to derive the framework that shows that IT migration to FOSS in the public sector of South Africa follows a strategic management process. This process goes through the phases of strategic planning, operational planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The framework is developed using eclectic explanations of strategic management, including mechanistic and organic perspectives. Correspondence analysis is used to corroborate and validate the framework. The framework is accompanied by a set of management guidelines that managers in the public sector can use in migrating their organisations' IT to FOSS. / School for Business Leadership / (D.B.L. (Strategic Management))

The Government of South Africa adopted a policy on Free Open Source Software (FOSS) in 2003. This policy requires all government entities to migrate their IT to open source. This adoption of the FOSS policy is based on evidence of potential FOSS contributions to economic development generally, and directly support South African economic development priorities. In spite of the adoption of this policy, rates of adoption of FOSS in the SA government are low. This is partly because there is a lack of documentation of successful cases of migration. In addition, there is no strategic management framework that managers can use as a guide for migration. This lack of documentation may result in managers in government finding it difficult to know how best to go about migrating to FOSS. A failure to address this problem will delay the take-up of FOSS, in spite of all its stated benefits. Evidence so far within the government of South Africa is that the adoption of FOSS is progressing rather slowly. Making use of a qualitative research method that combines grounded theory with a case study method in four South African Government organisations, this study develops a strategic management framework for IT migration to FOSS in the South African public service. The four organisations that were part of this study were: the National Library of South Africa; the Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development; the Electronic National Traffic Information System and the State Information Technology Agency. Data was collected using an open-ended interview guide. A strategic management framework for Information Technology migration to FOSS will assist the Government of South Africa with the better implementation of its FOSS policy. The framework will provide guidance to public sector managers regarding how the process of migrating can best be managed. Content analysis is used to derive the framework that shows that IT migration to FOSS in the public sector of South Africa follows a strategic management process. This process goes through the phases of strategic planning, operational planning, implementation and monitoring and evaluation. The framework is developed using eclectic explanations of strategic management, including mechanistic and organic perspectives. Correspondence analysis is used to corroborate and validate the framework. The framework is accompanied by a set of management guidelines that managers in the public sector can use in migrating their organisations' IT to FOSS. / School for Business Leadership / (D.B.L. (Strategic Management))