We've recently written about potentially far-reaching moves by the U.S. government to switch significant parts of its internal software infrastructure to open source. First, the news came out that Whitehouse.gov is now based on the open source Drupal content management system (which OStatic runs on too), then the U.S. Department of Defense announced its plans to move to open source software components and platforms.

When the news broke about Whitehouse.gov and Drupal (and the Obama administration has indicated intent to run other government sites with Drupal), my first thought was that Acquia, which provides commercial support for Drupal, might see some valuable support contracts from the government. InfoWorld's Savio Rodrigues takes the idea one step further, though, and I'm inclined to agree with him.

Sometimes, no matter how polished and perfect something you're working on is, the enabler for whether it will really make a difference to others lies elsewhere. There continues to be strong evidence that no matter how many types of cost savings and efficiencies open source can offer them, enterprises just won't bite if they fear training and support hurdles. Good commercial open source companies understand this acutely, and build their messaging around it. Those who don't face an uphill battle.

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?