Gartner reveals more than 50% of 547 IT organisations in 11 countries use open-source software (OSS)-- with nearly one-third saying its due to reasons of flexibility, innovation and shorter development times.
Around 22% of organisations use OSS across all departments, while 46% implement OSS solutions in specific departments or projects. 21% are currently evaluating OSS options.
However, only one-third of respondents have a formal OSS policy in place.
The key initiatives OSS use supports (as defined by Gartner) include data management and integration (and application development), integration, architecture, governance and/or overhaul, business process improvement/re-engineering, security, risk and/or compliance, data center modernisation/consolidation and virtualisation.
OSS adoption was less than 10% 5 years, but is now becoming stronger-- growing to an expected 30% within the next 18 months. Meanwhile, proprietary software rate is decreasing at the same rate, as developers use OSS components together with internally developed software to enchance existing systems.
