Open Source at Catalyst: Owning Our Digital Future.

29 January 2026 • by Alex Lawn

At Catalyst, we don’t just promote open source through our hosting, customisation and support of platforms like Moodle, Mahara, Totara, Drupal and WordPress – we live and breathe it.

When new staff start, one of the things that surprises them most is just how committed we are to using open source tools wherever possible. It’s not a marketing slogan for us. It’s a deliberate strategy that shapes how we work every day.

This post gives some insight into the tools we use internally, and the power that open source gives us as an organisation.

Open Source = Control

For us, open source is fundamentally about control.

  • We control when and how updates happen
  • We have full ownership of our data
  • We are not locked into a single vendor’s roadmap or pricing
  • We can integrate systems deeply and meaningfully
  • We can inspect, improve and customise the tools we rely on

This gives us something that’s increasingly rare in the modern SaaS world: true digital sovereignty.

Our core tool stack

Here’s a snapshot of some of the open source platforms we use internally:

Development and automation


We use GitLab (https://gitlab.com) and Gocd (https://gocd.org) for:

  • Source control
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Issue tracking
  • Code review

Having this under our control means we can automate deployments, testing and releases in ways that fit our workflows – not someone else’s product decisions.

Communication and collaboration

Instead of Teams or Slack, we use Matrix (https://matrix.org) for internal chat.

For collaborative writing and quick notes, we use Etherpad (https://Etherpad.org) – perfect for meetings, workshops and shared drafting in real time.

For longer-form documentation and knowledge sharing, we use Outline (https://www.getoutline.com/) as our internal wiki.

For Meetings instead of zoom or teams we use Big Blue Button (https://bigbluebutton.org/) a fully featured video chat tool that we can self host. We can also host this for you and integrate it with your Moodle – ask us how.

Identity and access


We use Keycloak for Single Sign-On (SSO), giving us centralised control over:

  • User accounts
  • Permissions
  • Authentication policies

This integrates with our other tools so staff have a consistent, secure login experience across systems.

Documents and file management

For document management and file sharing, we use ownCloud.

This ensures:

  • Files stay under our control
  • Access is governed by our policies
  • Data lives where we choose it to live

No opaque cloud storage. No hidden data mining. No surprise policy changes.

Secure networking

We use OpenVPN and WireGuard for VPN access, ensuring secure remote connections for staff wherever they are.

Combined with our authentication systems, this lets us maintain strong security without relying on proprietary black-box solutions.

Hardware and operating systems

All staff use Ubuntu laptops.

This gives us:

  • A consistent environment
  • Strong security controls
  • Access to a massive open source ecosystem
  • Freedom from forced hardware or OS upgrade cycles

It also aligns perfectly with the platforms we host and support for our customers.

CRM and business operations

We use EspoCRM for: (https://www.espocrm.com/)

  • Client management
  • Sales pipelines
  • Relationship tracking

Because it’s open source, we can adapt it to how Catalyst works — not the other way around.

Owning our data unlocks real insight

Once you own your own data, you can do something incredibly powerful: bring it all together.

We consolidate data into a PostgreSQL data warehouse and use Metabase (https://metabase.com) on top of it for reporting and analytics.

This allows us to produce unified reporting across:

  • Sales pipelines
  • Infrastructure and cloud spend
  • Support hours and response times
  • User and system activity
  • Business unit performance

Instead of fragmented dashboards across different SaaS platforms, we have one source of truth.

The result is genuinely powerful insight into how the organisation is performing — technically and commercially.

Cost savings without compromise

Open source doesn’t just give us control — it also makes a huge difference to cost.

We avoid:

  • Per-user licensing fees
  • Vendor lock-in
  • Escalating subscription models
  • Paying for features we don’t need

Instead, we invest in:

  • Infrastructure
  • Staff expertise
  • Customisation
  • Integration
  • Reliability

This means our spending goes into capability, not just licences.

And because we already employ experts in open source platforms, the tools we use internally strengthen the skills we deliver to customers.

Flexibility by design

Because our tools are open:

  • We can integrate them together
  • We can extend them
  • We can replace them
  • We can migrate data freely

If a tool no longer meets our needs, we are not trapped.

Our systems evolve as Catalyst evolves.

This flexibility is not theoretical – it’s built into how our infrastructure is designed.

Data sovereignty as a principle

At a time when data is increasingly locked inside opaque platforms, we believe strongly that organisations should:

  • Own their data
  • Understand where it lives
  • Control how it is used
  • Decide how long it is kept

This matters for:

  • Privacy
  • Security
  • Compliance
  • Trust
  • Long-term sustainability

Our internal systems reflect the same values we advocate to our customers.

More than tools – it’s a culture!

This isn’t just a technology decision. It’s a cultural one.

Open source encourages:

  • Transparency
  • Collaboration
  • Skill-sharing
  • Problem-solving
  • Independence

When new staff arrive, they quickly realise that this is not an organisation that outsources its thinking to vendors.

We build, we understand, and we take responsibility for our digital environment.

Moodle and your data

We host Moodle using secure, scalable open-source infrastructure, while making its learning data easy to access for analytics. Our clients take advantage of:

  • Advanced reporting inside your LMS
  • Access to full nightly backups that can be stored in your data-centers or ingested for use in tools like Power BI
  • Realtime read-replica databases allowing upto date reporting with external tools of your choice

Reach out to our team so we can help you best leverage your data.

Own your digital future!

At Catalyst, open source isn’t an ideology — it’s a practical strategy.

It gives us:

  • Control
  • Flexibility
  • Insight
  • Cost efficiency
  • Data sovereignty

And most importantly, it gives us the freedom to build systems that serve our people and our mission — not someone else’s business model.

Own your digital future, talk to one of our Open Source consultants today.

Alex Lawn brings over 20 years of experience at Catalyst IT, where he leads the Operations and Infrastructure team. A seasoned expert in AWS architecture, Linux systems, and high-performance Moodle hosting, Alex has played a key role in scaling some of the largest Moodle environments in the southern hemisphere. With a deep understanding of the demands of higher education, he specialises in infrastructure automation, performance tuning, and resilient cloud-native deployments.

Talk to our Open Source experts