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SSH-Based Solutions - Looking for Industry Proof?

Posted by Cliff on from the open-source-is-everywhere-so-use-it dept.

mcwop asks: "My company's IT department is trying to set up secure FTP with a vendor. It would be set up on a Sun box (not running Solaris 9). I emailed suggesting they look at OpenSSH. The response I received stated that they don't like to use freeware, but only consider industry proven and supported software. I have found one commercial version at SSH. What other commercial versions are out there (I know Solaris 9 comes with SSH)? But more importantly, what are some commercial successes? What large organizations are implementing SSH?"

5 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. Silly by rmassa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why don't you talk to the openssh team? I'm sure that for some nominal fee you can get extra priority support. OpenSSH is (IMHO) the best ssh implementation out there, and its from a dedicated team where security supercedes even functionality. The newest version of OpenSSH promises to be very hard to exploit.

  2. Been there, done that by bee · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In 1994, I took a job at a bank in Oklahoma. My boss at the time had the attitude "We're a bank, we pay for software".

    Then I showed him screen. Suddenly the light went on in his head-- "Hey, I don't have to use 2 phone lines and 2 modems to get 2 shells at work!" To him, it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

    After that, he didn't have any problems letting me install emacs. :-)

    --
    At least mafia-owned pizzarias make excellent pizza. Compare to Bill Gates.
  3. openSSH by MattW · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OpenSSH is far more widely used than any commercial variant. You'd be hard pressed to find a fortune 500 company that isn't using it somewhere. Almost any provider of IT services or network services uses it, unless they have no *nix boxes at all and provide no services on anything other than a windows platform. Try a quick survey of network security companies and ask how they do remote access/filetransfer -- no matter how big, scp/ssh will be the answer, and it will be openssh for a majority of them.

  4. OpenSSH vs Commercial SSH by Bagheera · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The company I work for ("a little hardware vendor in the Valley") switched from the Commercial ssh client and server package to OpenSSH for all of our servers. OpenSSH proved more robust and easier to support - not to mention much, much, less expensive. And yes, I'm including the "cost" of our SysAdmin's time and the time of the person who manages distribution of our 'approved' OpenSSH package.

    There really is no reason to use a commercial product unless the management is stuck on the "We need someone to sue if it breaks" business model of software acquisition.

    --
    Never attribute to malice what can as easily be the result of incompetence...
  5. Stupid managers: fire them by Ogerman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The response I received stated that they don't like to use freeware, but only consider industry proven and supported software.

    Then your company needs to fire its IT management staff since it is apparent they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. In the meantime, you can tell them that OpenSSH is NOT Freeware. I wouldn't trust freeware either. The difference? Freeware is typically closed source software that the authors refuse to release to code to because they think they're really "eleet" or some similar childish reason. I would also ask you: if you're a talented geek (assumption), why are you working for some lame company that refuses to touch Open Source software? Go somewhere where you're gonna make a difference. If you have the skills, you'll find plenty of jobs doing what you'd really like to do.