Seventh Annual Future Of Open Source Survey Results Show Culture, Quality And Growth Driving An Open Revolution

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Apr 17, 2013, 02:00 ET

BURLINGTON, Mass. and WALTHAM, Mass., April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- North Bridge Venture Partners and Black Duck Software today announced the results of the seventh annual Future of Open Source Survey. The 2013 survey represents the insights of more than 800 respondents - the largest in the survey's history - from both non-vendor and vendor communities. Survey results reveal the cultural impact of open source software and its influence on everything from innovation, to collaboration among competitors, to hiring practices, is revolutionizing the way organizations work and do business.

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"It's been recognized that software is eating the world. Our seventh annual Future of Open Source survey points to the fact that open source is eating the software world," said Michael J. Skok, general partner at North Bridge Venture Partners. "This year's results signal a shift in reasons why open source is chosen over proprietary alternatives. Increasingly, enterprises see it as leading innovation, delivering higher quality and driving growth rather than being just a free or low-cost alternative. Going forward, as broader adoption creates a virtuous cycle of innovation and investment, we can expect more disruption from open source, new business models and many more exciting new projects and companies."

This year's survey results point to three conclusions which support the broadening influence of OSS:

Culture and innovation: Open source solves major challenges for enterprise. -- In the past, security and licensing acted as traditional barriers to adoption. Now, OSS is driving change from the bottom up, a cultural shift supported by executives' openness to work with active and strong communities to influence projects and spur innovation.
1. Respondents see innovation (61 percent) and collaborative partnerships (48 percent) as leading the technology industry forward. Culturally, collaboration is on the rise with 57 percent of respondents agreeing their companies will collaborate with competitors in industry-specific communities over the next three years.
2. Reflecting current trends, cloud, big data, and mobile will impact respondents' businesses the most.
3. Innovation and knowledge of OSS in academia ranked as a leading trend in open source for the next 2-3 years. When hiring new software developers, companies are looking for deep experience versus a wide range of experience, revealing a shift in priorities.
Quality: Open source has reached a depth and maturity where quality, access to code and costs are no longer barriers to adoption. -- Quality is no longer a barrier to adoption, instead driving companies to increased OSS use. This trend is reinforced by thousands of developers working to reduce defects in code, improve its security and innovate with new features and enhancements that get closer to what users want - because those users can have a hand in making it so.
1. The most important factor for OSS adoption was quality, a ranking which increased from third place in 2012. Freedom from vendor lock-in dropped to second place this year, from first place in 2012.
2. Lower costs, big data, and systems integration are the top three business problems open source is solving.
Growth: Government, healthcare and media sectors are on an open source growth path. -- These organizations, typically process-heavy and slower to change, are being driven by principles of collaboration, transparency, and speed.
1. When choosing OSS over proprietary solutions, nearly half (45 percent) of respondents chose technical capabilities and features as most important, while only 12 percent chose commercial vendor support as an important decision criteria.
2. Over the next 2-3 years, respondents believe open source will affect government the most (35 percent), with health and science in second place (15 percent), media in the third spot at 13 percent, financial services at nine percent, and automotive at eight percent.
3. SaaS is moving up as a top source of revenue generation, an increase from fifth place in 2011, demonstrating the close correlation between the cloud and open source.

"The 2013 Future of Open Source Survey shows the revolutionary effect of OSS software and methods across economic sectors. The results point to a cultural shift in business, where companies are employing a new level of sophistication as they work within OSS communities to attract talented developers and influence projects while maintaining good citizenship in the community. Technology as well as the tenets of open source are being adopted, the surest indicator of the positive changes that can come with OSS," said Tim Yeaton, President and CEO, Black Duck Software.

Industry influencers were polled about OSS trends, opportunities, key drivers of open source adoption, community engagement, and the business problems OSS will solve now and into the future.

See results of this year's survey at http://www.mjskok.com/resource/2013-future-open-source-7th-annual-survey-results and http://www.slideshare.net/blackducksoftware/the-2013-future-of-open-source-survey-results.

Join the #FutureOSS conversations on Twitter and on the Open Source Delivers blog.

About North Bridge Venture Partners
Established in 1994, North Bridge is an active partner for early-stage entrepreneurs, providing seed-to-growth financing for innovative companies looking to disrupt big markets. North Bridge partners, many founders themselves, work with entrepreneurs to apply their expertise in the creation, operation and scaling of market-leaders. The firm has offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Palo Alto, California. To learn more about North Bridge go to www.northbridge.com and follow us at @north_bridge. For more information on the Future of Open Source program, visit http://mjskok.com/resources/open-source.

About Black Duck Software
Offering award-winning software and consulting, Black Duck is the partner of choice for open source software adoption, governance and management. Enterprises of every size depend on Black Duck to harness the power of open source technologies and methods. As part of the greater OSS community, Black Duck connects developers to comprehensive OSS resources through Ohloh.net, and to the latest commentary from industry experts through the Open Source Delivers blog. Black Duck also hosts the Open Source Think Tank, an international event where thought leaders collaborate on the future of open source. Black Duck is headquartered near Boston and has offices in San Mateo, St. Louis, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing. For more information about how to leverage open source to deliver faster innovation, greater creativity and improved efficiency, visit www.blackducksoftware.com and follow us at @black_duck_sw.

2013 Future of Open Source Survey Collaborators: