The 451 Group has acquired OREV, LLC.

For the past year or so, I have been focused on advising enterprise IT and software vendors on open source strategy through my consulting firm, o*rev. My work as o*rev, along with editorial duties for Enterprise Open Source Journal (EOSJ), freelance writing for various publications, and conference speaking and panel moderation opportunities, have made up the core of my involvement with open source recently.

Today, I am pleased to announce that my consulting firm, o*rev, has been acquired by The 451 Group - a privately held, New York-based technology industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. This is an important development, which validates much of the work I have done and which will provide an opportunity for me to expand the scope and impact of open source adoption.

My research work (including my recent report on the financial benefits of open source) and many of the services previously provided by o*rev will be integrated into a new Open Source Practice within The 451 Group. I have been appointed as the Open Source Practice Head for The 451 Group, joining an already-strong 451 open source team, including Senior Analyst Rachel Chalmers, along with Chief Analyst John Abbott, Research Director Chris Noble and Enterprise Software Analyst Martin Schneider. The 451 Open Source Practice will focus the company's analytical activities around enterprise adoption of open source software.

The 451 Group also will soon launch its 451 Commercial Adoption of Open Source (CAOS) Research Service. This service will analyze the challenges and opportunities as commercial enterprise 'early adopters' introduce open source software into their core IT operations, and it will examine the effectiveness of the strategies, business models and support/development programs of vendor companies which are deploying an open source approach in delivering software to their enterprise customers. The 451 CAOS Research Service will serve as the focal point of much of my individual activities, and I plan to be in touch with many of you on this service over the coming months. So stay tuned for more on this.

Why have I taken this step?

Well - quite simply - I am impressed by the leadership and direction of The 451 Group within the enterprise IT industry, and particularly its innovation-focused agenda. I am also excited by the resources that The 451 Group is investing to develop its analytical practice around the open source business community.

I will be leading the company's efforts, but that is not to say that The 451 Group does not already have an impressive record analyzing the commercial adoption of open source software:

* 451 analysts have produced more than 1,000 reports over the past five years - available through the company's core services, including the 451 Market Insight Service and 451 TechDealmaker - that have analyzed open source technology providers, their business models and their competitive positioning at various levels.

* In October of 2005, The 451 Group held its 451 Industry Summit on the Commercial Adoption of Open Source at which attendees included executives from leading IT vendor companies (including IBM, Sun Microsystems and Novell), leading open source software firms (including CollabNet, JBoss and SugarCRM), under-the-radar startups, venture capitalists, investment bankers and early-adopter end users.

* This past December, it released the 451 Special Report, "Cashing in on Open Source," which was principally authored by my new colleagues Rachel Chalmers and Chris Noble, along with Martin Schneider, which many in the community have been talking about.

* Within the next few weeks, The 451 Group will be launching its Software Business Transformation Summit, which will be an annual, executive summit for key members of the community to examine the changing model, and underlying economics, for enterprise software - where I hope to see many of you this coming June.

Simply put, what does all of this mean?

* I'm an industry analyst now, and my efforts will be focused around providing timely, relevant, and insightful coverage of trends and events in the open source industry and the open source community. I will primarily be interacting with you as an open source analyst.

* I will remain based in Dallas, Texas, and will be visiting our New York and San Francisco offices on a regular basis.

* I have resigned my duties as Senior Technical Editor for Enterprise Open Source Journal (EOSJ), but will remain on in an advisory capacity.

* My final issue of the Open Source Update newsletter will correspond with OSBC West this week. I am in the process of training someone at TCI, the publishers of Enterprise Open Source Journal (EOSJ), to continue the newsletter, but the content and frequency may change. If you are a current subscriber to the newsletter, please stay tuned for more information.

I invite you to learn more about The 451 Group by visiting our web site - www.the451group.com.

If you represent a company, organization, or open source project team, please add me to your PR/AR/Briefing mailing lists.

If you are planning to be at OSBC West in the next few days, I hope we will have the opportunity to connect.

There is much more to tell you, and I will be in touch over the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this news, please don't hesitate to contact me directly. My email address is listed on my profile page.

Thank you.