The world’s leading open source software solution provider Red Hat recently released the 2021 "Enterprise Open Source Survey", pointing out that enterprise-level open source software is gradually being regarded as a trend in the software industry in the future, and IT leaders have also widely regarded enterprises Class-level open source software is regarded as a higher-quality, more innovative, and even safer choice than alternative products, and affirms the value brought by open source code by actively participating in open source projects, rather than simply opening source code Provided by the repackaged software vendor.
The key focus of the 2021 "Enterprise Open Source Survey" includes: the main application scenarios for digital transformation to open source, enterprise open source is the key driving force for innovation, the security of enterprise-level open source software becomes a major advantage, and software vendors are in The participation and contribution of the open source community is indispensable.
Digital transformation is becoming more important
54% of respondents said that digital transformation is an important application scenario for enterprise open source, an increase of 11% compared to two years ago, and similar results have been obtained in related categories such as application development, development and maintenance (DevOps); while Red Hat is in The recently released "Global Technology Overview 2021" also revealed that digital transformation is a major development focus in 2021. Respondents said that digital transformation is the non-technical IT project that companies spend the most money on, and 21% of companies are accelerating the pace of digital transformation, which may be the result of the epidemic.
Most regions in the world still rank "IT infrastructure modernization" as the primary goal of using enterprise open source, while in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, it ranks first with digital transformation. Since open source is built on a modern infrastructure, this result is not surprising, but the driving force of open source software on important business strategies such as digital transformation is harder to predict.
Key benefits of open source: instant access to forward-looking innovative technologies
Compared with the strong demand for "IT infrastructure modernization", the "low total cost of ownership (TCO)" that used to rank the top class in the past has fallen to fifth place in 2021. In the past, enterprise open source software was mostly regarded as a cheaper and usable alternative to proprietary software. However, in all aspects, enterprises are gradually considering open source software as a better choice.
The report also conducted a survey on the advantages of enterprise open source software. The results showed that the most interviewees believed that "the quality is higher than proprietary software", and that "the ability to use open source technology safely" ranked fourth, both of which are related to the rise. To the second place is "Acquiring Innovative Technology". In general, the advantages cited by IT leaders are sufficient to prove that the company's open source can effectively assist in obtaining forward-looking innovative software and deploying it in the business.
Safety is the highest quality
Software security is the third place in the survey of the advantages of enterprise open source software. In addition to its quality, it also contains many other factors. For example, security is a recent global hot topic, or the security code of analog signal equipment has also caused controversy.
However, the view that open source code is worrying about risks has gradually faded; 30% of respondents regard higher security as the top three advantages of open source software, and 87% of respondents believe that enterprise open source software is better than proprietary software. More secure" or "Same safe".
On the whole, 84% of respondents said that enterprise open source software is a key component of corporate security strategies, and 75% of respondents trust enterprise open source software because it has undergone strict review procedures and commercial tests to ensure high-quality code.
Open source as a source of innovation
Many of the above-mentioned innovations in the software industry come from the open source software community. For example, there are many open source projects in the field of cloud native and machine learning, and survey data also confirms this. Through enterprise-level open source software, enterprises can safely obtain innovative results in all open source communities.
Software vendors need to actively participate in upstream open source projects in order to provide customers with enterprise-level open source solutions more efficiently. Because of this, Red Hat has developed the expertise to support products, prioritizing the interests of customers, and personally influencing the development direction of open source projects.
This report also surveyed IT leaders’ preference for software vendors that "passively use open source projects" and "actively promote open source innovation projects." The results clearly show that 38% of IT leaders are more willing to choose to work in the open source community. For the contributed software vendors, another 45% of respondents tend to choose this software vendor.
The 2021 "Enterprise Open Source Large Survey" surveyed 1,250 corporate IT leaders around the world, and explored the status and views of companies on the use of open source software. The survey contains most of the questions in previous reports, which helps to observe the long-term trends of specific topics.