Open Source Statistics

Enterprise Adoption of Open Source Increasing

SandHill.com recently published an opinion by Bruce Guptill of Saugateck Technology in which Guptill comments on the new Saugatuck research report, "Open Source Software: The Next Disruptive IT Influence". According the Guptill, Saugatuck's research revealed that "open source software currently accounts for as much as 10 percent of user enterprise software worldwide." While open source still has a smaller footprint in the enterprise than commercial software, other figures cited by Guptill suggest that the amount of open source used in the enterprise will continue to grow in the coming years. 60 percent of respondents said that "open source software delivers significant business value," and 50 percent of respondents said that "open source software is widely used within their enterprises."

Survey Summary

Date: October 2007
Audience: IT and business executives
Number of Responses: More than 200
Source: The research study included "survey input from over 200 user IT and business executives, supplemented by interviews and briefings with more than 20 open source and traditional software and services vendors."
Conclusion: Guptill notes that 65 percent of the executives surveyed said that they frequently or always "consider and evaluate open source alternatives when planning to acquire new systems, applications, databases, or software tools." As executives increasingly see value in open source software and evaluate open source alternatives to commercial and proprietary software, the amount of open source deployed in the enterprise will almost certainly continue to grow.

Credits: SandHill.com and Saugatech Technology. The chart above was compiled from data referenced in the SandHill.com article, "The Open Source Threat".