Over 78% of companies are using open source software. And only less than 3% do not use OSS in any ways.
According to the survey, 78% companies are run on OSS, and 66% of them are creating software for customers that use OSS. And the number has doubled since 2010, when only 42% companies were run on OSS.
- 93% of companies said their usage of OSS increased or remained the same.
- 64% of companies are currently participating in OSS projects, and it has increased from 50% in 2014. 88% of companies are expected to increase contributions to open source projects in the next 2-3 years.
- 66% of companies are considering OSS as a default approach before other options for their next product.
- 55% of companies believe that open source delivers superior security when lined up against proprietary solutions. The superior security of open source is also expected to rise to 61% over the next 2-3 years.
- 58% think open source scales better and 43% said OSS provides superior ease of deployment over proprietary software.
- When evaluating security technologies for internal use, 45% of companies say that open source options are given first consideration.
- Looking ahead, those who took the survey saw cloud computing (39%), big data (35%), operating systems (33%), and the Internet of Things (31%) being impacted by OSS in the next 2-3 years.
- More than 55% of respondents said their company has no formal policy or procedure for open-source use. Moreover, only 27% have a formal policy for employee contributions to OSS projects.
- A mere 16% have an automated code approval process and less than 42% maintain an inventory of open source components.
- More than 50% are not satisfied with their ability to understand known security vulnerabilities in open-source components, and only 17% plan to monitor open source code for security vulnerabilities.
1: Server software
As for now, the world has 49.7% servers running on Apache. (https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/ws-apache/all/all). The Apache server is what Facebook used when it was only an startup in 2004. It is free but incredibly reliable. And it is easy to manage as well. There are tons of resources online for how to configure and run Apache as a server.
2: Development
There are many programming languages that are open sourced, including PHP, Go, Python, Ruby and more. Along with the programming languages are hundreds of developing framework, IDE and libraries like NodeJS, Atom and TensorFlow. More and more developers are considering open source options as their first choice before anything else. With an active community, the documentation is more readable and the issue tracking is more in time. Developers find it easy to develop with open source software.
3: Security
The path to security cannot avoid open source software. From network security to desktop security, Linux and Apache are playing a great role. Although deploying an open source security route will take more time, but the end results are generally incredible.
4: Desktops
This area is where most of the pushback happens. However, you must take into consideration the fact that the daily workflow has undergone a major paradigm shift. Most of what we do now is done via a web browser. So why not deploy Linux on the desktop? Not only does it work with the majority of today's tasks, it will do so without suffering from viruses, malware, and updates that cripple a system. It's not perfect — what platform is? But it's solid, and in the end, it can save you money. That's a win-win.
5: Workflow
Every business depends upon workflow. For some businesses, a smooth workflow depends upon tools. Open source has this arena covered. CRM, HRM, ERP, BI, BPM... you name it, open source handles just about every possible acronym you can think of — and it does it very well. With the likes of Pentaho, Collabtive, and SugarCRM, open source can keep up with closed source tools any day.
6: Collaboration
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7: Big data
When it comes to big data, open source can't be matched. Thanks to the likes of SUSE, big data and open source now go hand in hand. Innovations like in-memory data and live kernel patching make open source an ideal solution for big data. It can be perfectly tuned to meet the massive demands big data places on the platform. Closed source software can't touch this level of flexibility.
8: Cloud
The major players in the cloud are open source. Red Hat, Ubuntu, SUSE, Amazon, Rackspace — they all get it and know that open source is the best solution for cloud deployments. But if you don't want to go with the larger companies, there are always up and coming tools like ownCloud, where you can either take advantage of its hosted cloud solutions or build your own.
9: Multimedia
If your company does podcasting or video for PR, open source has you covered. With tools like Audacity and OpenShot, you can do just about anything with audio or video you need — and do so on the cheap. In fact, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better podcasting tool than Audacity or an easier-to-use video editor than OpenShot. Both pieces of software do an outstanding job of creating professional-quality results without the steep learning curves or the high prices often associated with closed source tools.
10: E-commerce
If your business sells products online, you'd be remiss not to give a tool like PrestaShop a try. PrestaShop is, hands down, one of the most powerful e-commerce solutions available — regardless of license. With just about every feature you could possible want (and some you probably haven't even thought of), the open source platform excels at e-commerce on every level.