Open Source Business Benefits Outweigh Potential Problems

A skills shortage is holding back open source adoption, but businesses nevertheless see clear benefits from using non-proprietary software. These are the findings of a survey of 1,000 IT staff in the UK, Germany, France and North America.

Fifty four percent of businesses in the UK said the benefits of open source outweighed any negative aspects. This marks a growth on last year, when in a similar survey 45 percent saw the benefits.

Some 43 percent of businesses in the UK currently use open source. In Germany and France, adoption is higher and over six in 10 businesses said they regularly considered open source as an option during procurement.