Service-level agreement

The talk compares how to assess open-source and closed-source software for production use. For closed-source products, it recommends checking customer references and asking about real deployments, support, and service-level agreements. It also advises reviewing licensing costs as a company grows and negotiating source-code escrow for major purchases, so customers have a fallback if the vendor fails. For privately funded vendors, investor expectations can signal future pressure to raise prices or bundle services; at high licensing and service costs, building an open-source alternative may be worth considering.