Considering your situation
- 20 years old
- 5 weeks on the job
- Fortune 100 company
- Established way of doing things (i.e. "corporate standard")…my advice to you–and hopefully this doesn't come off as too patronizing–is to shut up and work hard at doing things according to the corporate standard, rather than trying to change things right off the bat.
Jon
I totally agree with this post…. Nothing worse than a new employee how hasn't even read the employee handbook to start telling the company they need new tools.
Oh, and speak the language of metrics. Tell them it takes me x amount of time to do xyz using this tool, but using this tool it would give me an extra 10 mins each day * 5 * 52. What's that? 40 hrs give or take (sorry lazy). 40 * your hourly wage and your ROI might only take a year or two. Multiple that by the amount of staff and you have paid for your software in the first year.
Figure out all that before you say, "I think we need this tool". When they ask you, "why?"… You will have something meaningful to say other than, "it's cool" at which point they wont listen to you anymore (or shouldn't).
I'd also note that it would be beneficial for you to shed some of your own assumptions and biases.
Corporate America does not recognize this fact that open source isnt the source of all evil and therefore They have locked down any chance of using that software on anything unless it is an absolute necessity.
These types of generalizations will only hurt your chances to influence decisions and tool selection. As a fellow Fortune X investigator, I've found its not about the tools at all. They are simply that, tools. There are many uses of open source tools throughout the companies; I'd be willing to bet that the company you work for has a wide range of *nix servers, etc being used.
Regarding the tools, MrWh1t3 and others are spot on. Simply compare the tools and results to verify. Over time, when you build trust with the non-technical folks they will care less about what tools you use to provide them with the information they need.