Open-source software is part of every software developer’s toolbox – but what role does open source play for companies?
Last week Bitkom published the Open Source Monitor 2019 in which 800 companies with 100 or more employees in Germany were surveyed. We took a close look at the report and found out for you how open source contributes to products, processes and digital transformation in companies.
Open source has arrived in the everyday business life
Large companies with more than 2,000 employees are definitely pioneers in this area – more than 80% of them use open-source software. In smaller companies with up to 200 employees, 65% use open-source software in their day-to-day business. Delightfully, of those who use open source, almost a quarter use open source software for the development or as part of their own products and solutions for customers – and further enhance the original source code.
Open-source software is used in innovative business areas
Companies benefit especially in departments and areas of open-source software that are currently subject to digital transformation. For example, 31% of companies use open-source software in cloud computing and as many as 34% in the big data & analytics sector.
Open-source software is part of the innovation strategy
The knowledge and speed of the open-source community is so important for 31% of companies that open-source software is not only used in innovation areas, but is even part of the innovation strategy. These companies named above all the advantages of open source as being access to the source code, simple individual adaptations of the software and knowledge transfer with the active community.
Open source is employer branding
Often it is teams and individual employees who drive the use of open-source software. In 58% of companies, specific departments take responsibility for open source software and actively promote its use. Companies recognize the great opportunity here and 55 % allow individual employees or teams to participate in projects of the open-source community.
The open-source software ownCloud has already arrived in many companies as a file synchronization solution and for sharing data and documents. Our customers benefit from the individual customization of the software code to their needs and use ownCloud to work more productive and flexible. We are happy about all the contributions that are created in the teams and add to the open-source philosophy behind ownCloud. Nevertheless, the figures in the Bitkom Open Source Monitor still leave a lot of room for improvement. We are convinced that open-source software is an important future component of the IT and software infrastructure and that the speed in which the contributors drive innovation in the open-source communities will be a decisive success factor for organizations.
The Open Source Monitor can be downloaded here: Bitkom.org
