Survey on Enterprise Open Source Usage Shows Disdain for Lock-In

OpenLogic, which provides support, compliance and other services for many enterprise open source software solutions, is out with the results of a survey of 118 enterprise IT and development executives. Among the trends found among respondents, they increasingly say they don't want single vendor lock-in from commercial open source software providers, and there are increasingly signs that they don't want to pay subscription prices for critical features, but do want support.

Among results from the OpenLogic survey, companies are currently most likely to use open source packages that are backed by multiple vendors or a community, and least likely to use a project backed by a single vendor:

• 68% of respondents say their companies are likely to use open source projects that are backed by multiple vendors
• 68% of respondents say their companies are likely to use open source projects that are backed by only a community
• 58% of respondents say their companies are likely to use open source projects that are backed by a single vendor

And, open source continues to grow as companies proactively look for open source solutions:

• 75% of respondents say their companies are very open to the use of open source software – using it in “many situations” or “proactively using open source whenever possible”
• 38% of respondents say their companies are proactively considering open source software “whenever possible”

The responses from the survey also indicate that enterprise users strongly want commercial support for the open source software that they use. A whopping 81% of respondents say their companies are likely to use open source projects that have a commercial support option. That's partly important because there have been concerns raised recently about growing unpaid adoption of open source solutions in enterprises.

It's also good news that the types of commercial support that enterprise customers can choose from are spreading out. As we covered yesterday, Credativ is offering one-stop shopping support for many open source software titles, including many enteprise tools. (And, OpenLogic provides support as well.) You can find more results from the OpenLogic survey here.