Cost savings prompt more companies to consider investing in open source software 12 May, 2008 By Erin Bell

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About 60 per cent of the 518 IT and LOB executives surveyed said that the percentage of their companys IT spending on open source increased in 2007. The IDC predicted that open source software and related services will continue to expand in importance to end-user organizations.

Cost savings was the number one reason for respondents to adopt open source software. "The economic slowdown in the United States may actually boost demand for open source services," said Gard Little, program manager of IDC's Worldwide Services and Emerging Services Opportunities research programs. "If organizations adopt more open source software as part of a strategy to reduce software costs, the demand for related services should increase."

Quality assurance, testing and certification of open source systems rated as the fastest-growing services opportunities by respondents, who projected that their spending on this service would grow 150 per cent between 2007 and 2008. The service opportunities around open source would remain with medium-sized and larger organizations.

Respondents said they believed that the biggest challenge vendors face in delivering open source-related services is integrating open source and proprietary software components.

Technology vendors generally have a leg up on pure service providers in terms of respondents plans to acquire external services. There was also a general perception among respondents that technology vendors provided the most innovative services related to open source.

The study also found that pure service providers ranked lower than IT product vendors in terms of respondents plans to use external service providers, and that pure service providers generally ranked lower on the attribute of open source-related innovation.