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Credativ Offers Support for Virtually Any Open Source App or Platform

Ask some IT managers and business owners why they don't adopt open source software, and a common answer will be "lack of support." Many projects don't offer formal support, relying on wikis and forums for answering questions. That's why it's big news that Credativ, Europe's largest service and support company focused on open source, is expanding its operations in the United States. Its Open Source Support Center is positioned as a one-stop shop for support for almost all significant open source applications and platforms, including the many flavors of Linux distros, development languages, and databases. Can one provider really pull off efficient support across the whole landscape of open source software?

According to an announcement from Joseph E. Conway, President and CEO of Credativ:

"Open source adoption is accelerating in the U.S., and Credativ LLC is introducing an important new concept to satisfy the resulting support void. We are one of the first companies to provide a critical piece of the infrastructure for mixed open source technology stacks – comprehensive, developer-level service and support for all major distributions and applications under one roof. We are an independent one-stop shop, and our aim is to help customers to save time and resources by focusing on solving their problems regardless of which open source technology best meets their requirements.”

You can find a list of projects that Credative supports here. It supports GnuCash (accounting), MySQL, PostgreSQL, GNOME, KDE, Moodle, OpenOffice, Asterisk (VoIP/PBX), almost all major Linux distros, Apache, Thunderbird (e-mail), and even many development languages, ranging from Bazaar to Git, among others. In fact, if the support is good for Credativ's whole list, the combination of free, open source software and dependable support could be achievable for many businesses, small and large.

Credativ's monthly support contracts start at $305, and if a company does not use all allocated support hours, it can exchange the hours for other services, such as consulting. The support is offered 24/7, and there are remote access options in addition to phone support, so technicians can take control of computers and solve problems themselves. You can contact the company's U.S. headquarters in California here, or send an e-mail to info@credativ.us

The real question is whether Credativ can pull off efficient support for so many projects. ZDNet's Dana Blankenhorn tackles that question here, and points to a previous post he wrote about Covalent, which offered multi-project support and was acquired by SpringSource. Blankenhorn points out that Credativ has more than doubled its support staff in advance of its U.S. launch.

I suspect that a lot of business owners and IT managers don't know that this kind of comprehensive support is available for open source applications and platforms. Credativ could possibly make switches to more cost-efficient and flexible software doable for them, without creating support headaches.

• linux
• support
• credativ

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