Thursday, April 3, 2014

8th Annual Future of Open Source Survey - 2014

Black Duck Software and North Bridge Venture Partners just announced the results of their annual Future of Open Source Survey for 2014. A record-breaking 1,240 industry influencers took part in this year’s survey.

This year’s results point toward the increased strategic role that open source software (OSS) has in today’s enterprises, the crucial function OSS plays in developing new technologies, the growth of first-time developers within the OSS community, and the impact it has on daily life.
 
According to Lou Shipley, President and CEO, Black Duck. “Open source has proven its quality and security, and reached a point of widespread democratization and proliferation. In particular, the survey revealed the three industries expected to be impacted most by OSS are Education (76%), Government (67%), and Healthcare (45%).
 
Survey respondents further reported that the top ten areas where OSS will impact our everyday lives include: 

 Education
 Mobility
 Web privacy/security
 Home appliance
 Wearable devices
 Robotics
 Entertainment
 Automotive
 Gaming
 Monetary exchange/payments
 
When asked what OSS technologies were leading in industry, 63% cited cloud computing & virtualization, 57% said content management, 52% selected mobile technology, and 51% answered security.
 
Also, 56% of corporations expect to contribute to more open source projects in 2014, signaling a change in the way enterprises view open source. When asked why they engaged with OSS communities, cost reduction was still the top response (61%), but many corporations (45%) responded that they also did so to gain a competitive advantage.
 
The survey shows enterprises now organizing to contribute back more actively; as they realize the importance of open source innovation to jumpstart careers and kickstart projects,” said Michael Skok, general partner at North Bridge Venture Partners. "Further, more new areas like the Internet of Things (IoT), which requires interoperability and extensibility, can only be met by open source initiatives, hence the emergence of new communities such as the AllSeen Alliance."
 
Additional Findings
  • 72 percent of respondents chose to use OSS because it provides stronger security than proprietary solutions.
  • Building upon this, 80 percent of respondents reported choosing open source because of its quality over proprietary alternatives.
  • 68 percent of respondents said that OSS helped improve efficiency and lower costs
  • 55 percent also indicated that OSS helped create new products and services
  • 50 percent of enterprises report openly contributing to and adopting open source.
To see the full results from the 8th Annual Open Source Survey conducted by North Bridge and Black Duck, go to Slideshare and view their presentation on The Future of Open Source .
 
Overall, the future looks bright not just for open source software (OSS), but for all things 'open'.  Share your thoughts.

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