Open Source Isn’t Just For Developers Anymore

Once a developer's hobby, a new survey finds open source is increasingly being driven by business managers.

Ten years ago, open source was a developer movement for developers. Not so anymore.

As a new Linux Foundation survey suggests, "business managers recognize open source software as a business imperative and are taking the lead in initiating open source participation." This, in turn, refashions open source as a critical business driver, not merely an efficient way to write code.

Once an imitator of proprietary innovation, open source has set the agenda on industry innovationfor years. The biggest trends in computingfrom cloud to Big Data to mobileare all powered by open source. And business users have taken notice.

Developers used to be able to get away with delivering on business requirements by leveraging open-source software, but today's business managers are openly asking for more open-source software.

The business reasons for getting started with open source, while different from those of developers, are compelling, according to the survey of 686 software developers and business managers:

From the Linux Foundation survey, other interesting facts arise, each of which points to a future filled with even greater business influence and involvement in open source:

The subtext in these results is clear: Business is driving more open-source development. In fact,among business managers, 44% indicated they would increase their investments in collaborative software development over the next six months, with another 42% said they planned on sustaining their current investment. No respondents said they had plans to decrease their investment.

While some of this heady optimism for open collaborative development is fueled by specific projects like Hadoop or Android, much of it comes down to collaboration with industry peers and even competitors to solve hard technology problems. OpenStack, OpenDaylight, Eclipse and Linux are all exemplars of industry collaboration; for some companies like IBM, collaborative foundations are the new default for development entirely.

Originally posted here:
Open Source Isn't Just For Developers Anymore