Quantifying Open Source Usage

IT research firm Gartner has released the results of an international survey taken last year indicating nearly half of the companies polled have implemented OSS (Open Source Software) in their organization.  22% indicated company-wide adoption of open source software and 46% used open source in specific departments or for individual projects.

Only a third of the companies surveyed had an official policy on the use of open source software, leading to an assumption that many of the projects were initiated by IT staff rather than management.

The trend of adopting OSS has maintained an increase for the fifth year in a row, with a projection by Gartner that 30% of companies will integrate OSS into their infrastructure by the middle of next year.

Locally developed programs, too, are projected to increase, at the expense of proprietary software.