There is a syndrome that has lately been plaguing the “Big 4” proprietary vendors. I will call it the “Acquisition/Confusion Syndrome.” It can be severely damaging, and anyone exposed to it is susceptible to infection. The point of exposure occurs when a “Big 4” vendor acquires a smaller, focused start-up in the hopes of expanding their offerings to their customers. It is shortly after this that the “Big 4” carrier becomes contagious and contaminates their customers, who begin showing symptoms almost immediately.It starts with a feeling of claustrophobia, of being locked-in to a vendor, and the customer breaks into cold sweat as he is forced to dig deep into his pockets and cough up large sums of money for new, complex product offerings. When IBM acquired Micromuse, Tivoli announced the End Of Life (EOL) of their existing monitoring solution and began transitioning customers into their NetCool offering for an added cost. Customers were required to re-purchase the new NetCool/Micromuse technology rather than acquire it through an upgrade- essentially buying a new product altogether. Word on the street is that after HP acquired Mercury, they strongly “encouraged” their channel partners and end users to deploy the Sitescope product.Then come the neurological symptoms- dissatisfaction, anger, confusion, and disorientation. IBM’s and HP’s customer base no doubt felt all of these as they were forced to spend more and learn a complicated, brand new product. Even though the customers exhibit the brunt of the symptoms, the “Big 4” are not left unscathed, although the disease does have a longer incubation period on the vendor end. As their customers become sicker and begin to die out over time, these large, strong, monolithic vendors weaken and, eventually, risk complete economic paralysis. But there is treatment. Daily use of open source software, with its lower costs and higher flexibility, could ease the symptoms of ailing midsized businesses and, as a result, relieve some of the pressure from the “Big 4.” Open source could be the simple, effective, speedy cure for this growing epidemic. Technology Industry