You will observe that businesses today are moving to Open Source software as a need to drive and scale innovation. The choice holds greater priority when teams are developing new-age applications suitable for business growth and better customer experience. And, new-age apps demand a futuristic technology layer that can be scalable, agile, and pack in higher security. So is Open Source the right choice?

Going by the swelling stats, it is becoming the primary choice for a number of global businesses across industry sectors. According to a recent survey, more than 60% of organizations have increased their overall usage of open source software and it is continuing to rise at an unprecedented rate. 91% of respondents have said that enterprise open source is going to be important for the organization within the next 12 months. 92% of organizations are using open source today, with a mix of community and enterprise open source.

To learn more about more insights about how the landscape of Enterprise Open Source has changed and what the future has in store, check out the Enterprise Open Source survey where we understand the impact of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia and India.

What should you know about Open Source Software?

Open Source Software (OSS) provides IT organizations a massive advantage over traditional third-party alternatives in terms of cost savings, flexibility, and technological innovation. Just in the last decade, the rapid development and maturity of OSS have won the trust of industry leaders particularly in the realms of reliability, scalability, and security.

Open source drives some key digital initiatives like reducing overall costs, ensuring greater security, availability of support, having a product roadmap, and much more! It is a preferred choice in terms of future-proofing enterprise IT architecture and supporting the ever-growing IT portfolios. Be it commercial or community open source, IT teams are picking the options that seem most viable to them. Throw in a trusted service provider and consultant for open-source implementation, and we have a winning combination. 

Thus, OSS is becoming the mainstream engine of innovation all across the world.

How did Open Source penetrate the market so quickly in the last few years?

Proprietary or legacy software may not be the first choice always for enterprises now, as they are moving away from the old ways. Maybe because innovation happens at a much slower pace within the proprietary software space, and businesses want that extra edge but at a faster pace so as to ensure they are not left behind from their competitors. And what enables this better than open source?

The very fact that Open Source is being used on a larger scale by at least 90% of the firms in SE Asia and India today, presents its case of being the backbone to many mission-critical IT workloads. 

What are the top driving forces for adopting Open Source?

With blockchain, cloud, automation, and many such revolutionary technologies driving today’s landscapes, Open Source is playing a preliminary and dominant role in supporting the new-age digital economy. Ideas that can take shape in terms of collaborative efforts between large companies, individual contributors, or the community. So, what are the major driving forces behind the widespread adoption of Open Source? 

Flexibility and adaptability

OSS brings forth greater flexibility and adaptability in terms of commercial developments, as the source code can be accessed by the vendor. It has helped to reduce the fees with consultant teams and Open Source Software helps in ensuring that the source code is completely accessible. It has also helped with a greater degree of flexibility for individual adaptations.

Less dependency on vendors

Proprietary software usually binds companies to the manufacturer especially and it gets stickier in the long run. The certain lock-in period makes it difficult to change alternatives, thanks to the high costs in terms of integration, adoption, and overall development. With OSS you are less likely to be dependent on any vendor, especially if you are using community versions.

Greater quality and security 

OSS has proven to be of high-performance and enhanced stability, ensuring easy scalability and higher security, all the same. The OSS community is an involved well-connected community, which is always focused on the development and new innovative techniques in constantly making the OSS better. The community is always collaborating in different ways to ensure that security gaps are discovered and closed as quickly as possible to ensure that people can work seamlessly on the OSS no matter what.

Better standards of interoperability

Open Source Software supports stable and tested technologies especially needing real-time performance and being compatible with existing IT systems and applications. It is possible to integrate all future systems with APIs that ensure quick releases, in terms of being connected and exchanged seamlessly.

Getting the Best Deal of Ownership

Open Source Software is great as it helps to avoid lower license fees or avoid license fees completely. It is great in avoiding in-house development along with free selecting IT service providers and helps in providing the lowest total cost of ownership.

Constant Technological Innovation

If there is one thing Open Source can promise, it is that it steps in to support innovation at a rapid scale. Critical business challenges are handled at a steady and efficient rate. OSS has an active community of developers and programmers that are constantly on the cusp of technological innovation and the community plays an important role in improving the speed of innovation. Nowadays, there are more than 90% of organizations have utilized OSS to steadily increase their overall speed of innovation.

What is the Future of Open Source?

The future of OSS is expected to reach a market of $66.84 billion by 2026 and the success of open source is expected to reach a tremendous amount of potential. Microsoft has recently called OSS “the industry-accepted model for cross-company collaboration”. A vast majority of experts believe that open source is going to be the future for continuous innovation and building a community of learners, mentors, and active developers. 

More corporations than ever before are adopting community open source/enterprise open source as it provides basic, core features without the need of a license fee. The Enterprise Open Source market is expected to rise between 36-44% within the next two years and according to RedHat, more than 86% of respondents have revealed that enterprise open source is being used by various innovative companies. OSS  is not just about reducing the costs as a whole but it is more from a technology perspective, as organizations and individuals are rapidly coming together to collectively invent the future. Community-based Open Source is headed towards an upward trajectory according to the data as per the data obtained from the RedHat survey.

With traditional enterprise software, there is a lack of structure particularly around the adoption of tools and OSS has helped to overcome the problem by establishing coding standards, implementing peer review, and having a security-focused approach. Some of the biggest players are IBM, Apple, Google, and OSS which have been able to solve issues through collaboration to come up with better solutions. OSS doesn’t rely on the code itself in terms of a solution but is mainly focused on the kind of business problems that can be solved.

In a nutshell

Enterprises are adopting Open Source Software to fuel greater innovation, get more freedom, save costs and be future-ready. The flexibility of its framework easily helps in controlling and modifying the needs of every enterprise and its team to produce better results. With a source code that is available freely, developers in enterprises can learn, adapt and implement with ease. And, for added support and stress-free deployments, working with experienced open source consultants and service providers can be a big step up. Beyond this, enterprise players who bring open source products also offer 24/7 support, customization, and training. Just find your comfort and alignment, the Open Source world will bring you the best support, solutions, and partnerships.

To learn all about Open Source technologies, support, and services, you can check out Ashink’s website here. Thanks for reading!