328 information technology and business executives & managers took a survey conducted by
CIO.com about adoption of open source technologies in their companies. More than half the respondents; 53% said that they are already using open source applications in their organizations, today.
45% revealed that the primary reason to
not use open-source software at their company has been due to
Product support concerns!
Awareness or knowledge that an open-source application that solves their requirement exists is lacking according to 29%. While 26% have security concerns and 22% lack support by management.
About a quarter of corporations 27% have a formal policy in place regarding open-source applications, though 18% expect to adopt such a policy in the next 12 months
Although they have full control over the code, enterprises clearly want assurance that someone will answer tech support calls. Companies offering open source need to convince their enterprise prospects that their software is backed by extensive support. Support could be offered in various ways via mail, forums, phone, online support ticketing systems or even IM.
Companies need to create special pages on their website informing prospects about the various support offerings, increase awareness of the benefits of the application and the problems it solves. This will greatly help the enterprises to adopt high-value yet freely available open source technologies.
Greatest Barriers to Open-Source Software Adoption at Your Company?
Source: CIO.com survey of 328 IT and business executives and managers, April 2008. Up to three items selected.
|
Percentage |
| Product support concerns |
45% |
| Awareness/knowledge of available solutions |
29% |
| Security concerns |
26% |
| Lack of support by management |
22% |
| Licensing or legal concerns |
21% |
| Investment in architecture from other vendor(s) |
20% |
| Software quality issues |
20% |
| Customization concerns |
15% |
| Not relevant to our product or service |
7% |
| Pressure on open-source providers by commercial vendors |
5% |
| Software cost allocation policies |
2% |
| Other |
9% |
Mass adoption of open source technologies in the Enterprises, will be a great success for the community. The requirements of the enterprises and businesses is very clear from the survey results. It is now the responsibility of the open source software providers to spread the revolution by providing reliable support and increasing awareness.
