Survey says: Open-source software making broad strides across the IT landscape

Updated: May 16, 2011

Among the other findings:

• The open source community is now more focused on maturing technology concerns, including improved operational excellence around areas such as support, product management, feature functionality and return on investment, as opposed to earlier concerns around the legal implications of licensing and conforming to internal policies.

  More than half -- 56 percent -- of respondents believe that more than half of software purchases made in the next five years will be open source.

• Respondents identified software as a service (SaaS), cloud and mobile computing as the main areas that can have a dramatic impact on open source and a virtually untapped opportunity for growth.
• More than half -- 56 percent -- of respondents believe that more than half of software purchases made in the next five years will be open source.
• An overwhelming 95 percent of respondents noted that a turbulent economy continues to be "good" for open source software, though for the first year ever, lower cost has been overtaken by freedom from vendor lock-in as what makes open-source software more attractive.
• When asked about revenue generating strategies likely to create value for vendors, 56 percent of the respondents said that an annual, repeatable support and service agreement was the most likely.