We Are Proponents of Open Source Software

01consistently get great value -- and the desired ROI -- from open source software - The quality of open source software met or exceeded the expectations of 92 percent of respondents to a recent survey conducted by Forrester Research. Meanwhile, 87 percent of respondents said that open source software delivered the cost savings they were hoping for.

 

02acquisition cycles and associated entry costs are minimal - Enterprises can use free versions of software to start a project without having to endure the protracted sales and acquisition cycles that often accompany pilot projects with commercial software. Also, there are scores of companies that build value-added capabilities on top of this freely available code, enabling an easy path to deploy open source-based applications in production. This more economical acquisition and deployment model allows organizations to dedicate greater portions of their budgets to customizations and innovations that really matter.

 

03can be even more secure than their commercial equivalents - Open source communities fix security vulnerabilities nearly twice as quickly as commercial software vendors. They've repeatedly shown they can do an excellent job discovering, characterizing, and patching security vulnerabilities. In addition, the community open source security practices are often backed by suppliers that provide commercial support and indemnification, which has had a dramatic effect on the rollout of open source applications in the enterprise.