Enterprise IT Open Source Adoption Statistics

It's not easy to figure out how much open source is present in enterprises. One of the traditional methods of use identification - vendor reports - is missing, as most open source software is downloaded anonymously. Self-reporting by enterprises cannot be relied upon, either, as many companies are unwilling to self-report in the interest of avoiding conflict with existing vendors or keeping competitive information confidential.

In this report, we examined actual job postings from large enterprises to determine how much demand for open source talent exists; this provides a proxy for open source adoption, since it is unlikely that organizations would staff for unnecessary skills. By analyzing our database of total job postings for large enterprises, the O'Reilly Research Group determined that open source recruitment, as a percentage of IT employment, represents 10 per cent of IT jobs. Taking into account the possibility that the data mining techniques are somewhat inexact, the Report concludes that open source employment represents somewhere between five and 15 per cent of total IT staffs, indicating that open source is playing a significant role in today's large IT organizations.

The methodology for identifying these jobs was that the job listings were mined for mention of open source products. Before you respond by noting that just because a job mentions Linux doesn't mean it's an open source job -- it might be an Oracle DBA job for a database that just happens to run on a Linux box, let me make you aware that a job had to include two open source products to qualify as an "open source job." In that way, jobs such as the Oracle DBA position would not be miscounted.

Frankly we were surprised at the percentage of jobs open source represents. Even accounting for the fact that the number has some inaccuracy, 10 per cent is definitely more than we expected going into the data mining exercise. This means that the person whose comment I noted above is almost certainly wrong with his assertion that his enterprise uses no open source.

Given that there are compelling reasons to adopt open source, and recognizing that open source has at least a de facto presence in all enterprise IT infrastructures, it is critical that organizations treat open source seriously and develop a methodical approach to implementing an open source strategy. Accordingly, the final section of the report describes three action plans, designed for organizations ranging from open source neophytes to companies advanced in open source use.

Enterprise IT Open Source Action Plans

This Report presents three Open Source Action Plans:

• Early open source use: Oriented toward organizations moving from skunkworks or small departmental open source use to broader mainstream use - what are the basics of methodical open source use?
• Mainstream use: For organizations that are regularly using open source, this Action Plan provides guidance on how to improve the organization's skill base, incorporate open source into existing processes, and better evaluate the costs and benefits of using open source for individual situations - how can open source be wired into cultural assumptions and fundamental IT processes?
• Advanced use: Organizations that intend to use open source as a basis for innovative business offerings will find this Action Plan helpful. Focusing on inventive industry collaborative efforts and harvesting end-user innovation, this section addresses the challenges of advanced open source use - how can open source characteristics be harnessed to drive innovation and improve business performance?

There's not really enough room in the blog to go into a full-bore discussion about the action plans (or indeed, about the previous sections of the Report, which runs 50 pages in total), but every organization needs to move beyond open source lethargy and create a formal use and strategy. It's no longer adequate to make a vague statement that open source really isn't that important to you or that it's so different you don't want to devote the time to coming up with something. Open source is already important to your organization, and passively avoiding confronting it is a shocking forfeiture of responsibility.

If you'd like a longer introduction to the Report, look here. There's a link to an extract of the report on the page. Also, if you would like to purchase it, O'Reilly has very kindly made a discount code available that will give you 30 per cent off the cover price. Use "RFREE" in the discount code box when ordering.