Opportunities to sell open source products and services to SMBs do exist, but only under the right set of circumstances. In fact, 451 analysts found that most vendors mix various strategies: offering hosted versions of the application (SaaS); ensuring that open source applications run on Windows; building easy-to-install, bundled 'software appliances'; and providing separate commercial licensing options and tools such as installers, which make open source more like shareware and packaged software, and thus more appealing to SMBs.

"Many of these strategies seem logical given the variety of users in the SMB market, and this may prove wise as vendors are able to gauge what is working and adjust accordingly," said Raven Zachary, Open Source Research Director.

The 40-page report, 'The SMB Market Opportunity - How big are SMBs for open source?,' was written by Jay Lyman, together with Raven Zachary and Chris Noble, Director of Research at The 451 Group. This 451 CAOS Report explores the challenges and conditions that must be met for open source software and its vendors to succeed in the SMB market. In addition to providing guidance for SMBs contemplating open source, it also examines the future trends and opportunities taking shape for open source in this very different market.