Open source software is becoming an increasingly strategic
issue for many organisations, a study by the National Computing
Centre (NCC) has found.
The NCC surveyed over 140 companies on behalf of IT services
provider Atos Origin and found that more than two-thirds of the
senior IT professionals questioned expect their companies to
develop an open source strategy in the next five years.
The study, which was carried out in May and June, found that over
60% of companies believe open source will either increase its
presence in some business areas, or will be a fundamental component
in their core IT systems.
Seventy three per cent said they expect open source to develop
within their organisation's IT strategy over the next five
years.
More than 50% have adopted or are planning to adopt open source,
more than 55% either accept or include open source in tenders and
30% believe advice on technical strategy would most assist them in
the adoption of open source.
Popular products include Linux (68%), the Apache web server (67%),
the Mozilla browser (55%), the PHP/Perl scripting language (53%)
and the MySQL database (52%).
Michael Dean, director for membership at NCC, said, "In a climate
where business value from IT investment is the driver, open source
has already proved its viability."
Noomane Fehri, head of the Innovation Team at Atos Consulting,
said, "Open source is maturing fast, as are the business models
that address the support issues and if companies prepare
thoroughly, defining an open source adoption roadmap from the
outset, tangible cost benefits can be realised in a very short
time."