DUBLIN, USA: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Power, Speed and Assimilation: Open Source Changes the Industry, and the Industry Changes Open Source" report to their offering.

From 2005 through 2007, we described how open source software would change the software industry, from how users buy and deploy business software to vendor business models and development strategies.

75 pc developers employ open source in APAC

In 2008, we found that the key changes that we predicted had already occurred, or where occurring now, as much as two years ahead of the expected timeframe. In short, we found that open source as already changed the software business as we knew it. But as a result, the software business has changed open source as well.

To understand how and why so much change happened so quickly, we delved deeply into the business and technology strategies of open source and traditional software vendors. We interviewed strategists and product development executives, as well as leaders of key open source communities. We spoke with user IT executives about their software adoption and management experiences, and analyzed data from our user surveys from 2005 through 2008.

Research highlights

* The basic nature of open source software is changing from project-based, developer-driven initiatives to vendor-driven, and vendor-owned, software.

* The same factors that attract users to open source: lower costs and reduced times of development, and reduced dependency on vendor-specific technologies, have attracted commercial software vendors to use and incorporate open source into their offerings and portfolios.

* The breadth and depth of open source presence within user firms is becoming impractical to measure, and less of a useful metric for open source evolution and influence in markets. Commercial vendor development, release, adoption and use of open source software is a more accurate measure of open source's market presence and influence.

* The involvement of commercial software vendors, including Master Brands, is a key factor in the rapid acceleration of open source adoption and use throughout world markets.

* Dual-license models are a key factor in reducing the distinction between traditional open source and vendor-proprietary software.

* User executives see costs of acquisition, and the ability to modify source code, as the key drivers for open source adoption in their firms.

* Open source software is seen as delivering significant business value to user firms, and is considered viable and valuable in all aspects of user enterprise software and systems.