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Internet News reported this week on IDC's latest take on open source software (OSS) adoption drivers and inhibitors. Analyst Matt Lawton previewed some factoids that I think he is going to present in more detail at next week's LinuxWorld in San Francisco.

According to the story, Matt is approaching his research into OSS adoption from exactly the right perspective--within the context of overall IT infrastructure and software adoption, rather than looking at OSS as a separate market the way some free-software-guru navel gazers think of the process.

My own research says most IT managers do not get up in the morning and say "I think I'll go buy some OSS today." They say,
-- "I need to accomplish such and such to make the business (or the IT infrastructure) run better.
-- "Will software help me do that or is there a device or appliance that targets my need better?
-- "If the answer is software, what software functionality will help me do that?
-- "Should I build it or buy it?
-- "If I buy it, should I license it perpetually or annually or should I buy it as a service?"
-- And so forth

OSS does not even make the list of filters until the build it or buy question for all intents and purposes. And even then it depends on whether the IT manager has already firmly committed to a specific development (e.g., Eclipse, VisualStudio) and/or deployment platform (e.g., WebSphere, WebLogic, NetWeaver, Red Hat's JBoss, SourceLab's SASH with Tomcat). Aside: most have not so committed (and even the ones that have move from enterprise to enterprise so frequently if they are good that no enterprise is really ALL BRAND A or ALL BRAND B.)

That's why the IDC study found (according to Internet News): "On an overall software basis... end users are most interested in product functionality, scalability and reliability. End users were less interested in having access to source code and the ability to modify and redistribute source code." Any one that has followed my research and analysis for the last 20 years knows the mantra: Functionality Rules! I have done or contributed to about 50 major pieces of statistically significant research among IT buyers in those 20 years and I cannot recall a survey where functionality was not the major adoption driver.

As for inhibitors, IDC apparently found some concern about patent issues when it comes to acquiring OSS according to the news story. Internet News probably feels leading with that issue will sell papers (they're right) but I doubt if any of the recent Microsoft hoopla was a major factor (the survey probably preceded the news). IT managers are more likely reflecting their inherent sense of fair play and their lawyer's desire that the company not be sued.

Posted by dennisb in OSS Business Issue |Digg This|Add to del.icio.us

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