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Open Source software growing faster than expected

Written by Arno Zijlstra Tuesday, 18 August 2009 09:39

We knew it already of course but a new report from IDC tells the same same story, Open Source is the way to go.

The IDC forecast concluded that, from 2009 to 2013, worldwide revenue from open source software will grow at a 22 percent compound annual growth rate to reach $8.1 billion by 2013. That growth figure is "considerably higher" than previous growth estimates from 2008, IDC says.

IDC says there are three main reasons for the big uptick in predicted revenue for open source software, or OSS, as the analyst group likes to call it. First, the level of acceptance of OSS among enterprises over the last 12 months is "much higher" than what IDC previously expected. Second, the poor economy is driving enterprises to seek alternatives in OSS (which is not to be confused with "free software," but which is often sold at a steep discount to proprietary alternatives). Lastly, IDC recently completed an "exhaustive" search for revenue-producing OSS projects, so apparently it has a better gauge on the breadth and depth of the overall OSS landscape.

IDC sees OSS as one of the disrupting factors in enterprise IT, along with software as a service (SaaS). So-called "hybrid" business models will become the norm.

Source: ITJungle