Open-source adopters prove a mixed bag
Enterprise content management (ECM) firm Alfresco Software’s latest research uncovers some interesting pointers about how companies are evaluating and deploying open-source software. The short version is: not in the same way as they are deploying other types of software.
Alfresco’s Open Source Barometer aims to take a regular reading of how, where and why companies are deploying open-source software. It is far from empirical as the only respondents are users of its own open-source software. However, it is far-reaching, based on some 35,000 responses to its most recent poll, and skewed towards large organisations. It is a fascinating insight into the still immature and fast-changing open-source world.
Among the most significant trends unearthed by Alfresco is that open-source software does not exist in a silo but is typically blended with, and even resides on, proprietary software. For example, when Alfresco asked about evaluation, 40 per cent of respondents said they used Windows to road-test the software, compared with 35 per cent on Linux. This is in spite of the fact that many more actual deployments are on Linux than on Windows.
