New Survey Reveals Large Amount of Organizations Are Using Open Source Tools

Around four-fifths of organizations are using open-source software tools in their business operations, according to a newly released survey.

Sonatype’s annual Open Source (News - Alert) Software Development Survey looked to determine how adopt, use and support open-source software (OSS) in their operations. More than 2,500 developers, architects and IT managers from a variety of company sizes were questioned across a number of industries and countries.

Half of the companies surveyed standardize on an open-source development infrastructure stack, while around two-thirds contribute to open-source projects themselves.

Sonatype’s Central Repository, which added Java.net projects in August, was determined to be the software development industry's most used resource for exchanging open-source components. The average enterprise (among those who took part in the survey) downloads more than 1,000 components each month from Central. The volume downloaded by large banks and independent software vendors soars above that figure. Almost 80 percent of respondents say Central is critical or important to their software development efforts, while 70 percent use Web search engines to find OSS components.

Additionally, findings show that OSS corporate policies and governance practices are becoming more commonplace, with regulated industries in particular being more likely to have strict policies. However, there’s seems to be a disconnect between development processes, component usage and policy enforcement.

The Open Source Software Development Survey concluded that that organizations are adopting OSS at an accelerated pace.

"The survey results confirm what we see and hear from our customers on a daily basis -- open-source has become the backbone of custom application development. Yet it brings with it a complex component ecosystem with no notification infrastructure in place. This leaves organizations exposed to security, quality and IP risks," said Charles Gold, CMO of Sonatype.

In Sonatype’s 2011 Software Development Infrastructure Survey, respondents suggested that OSS integration issues limit developer productivity and team efficiency.