The Open Solutions Alliance has completed its first annual survey of its membership and other open source software and services companies. The results of this survey point to optimism despite a murky economy. In fact, 83 percent of participants say they would see a year-over-year increase in revenue in 2008 of open source related software and services.

The affordable price of open source software is motivating customers for 78 percent of survey participants, not surprising there is a turn toward open source in a down economy.

The survey also found that open source companies are seriously considering collaboration. Almost all of the survey respondents, 97 percent, reported that they have active partnerships with other open source software and services companies. The average survey participant had 10 such partnerships.

"We knew that collaboration was important to open source companies, but this statistic was surprising," said Dominic Sartorio, senior director of product management for SpikeSource and president of the Open Solutions Alliance, in a Thursday statement.

"The Open Solutions Alliance is focused on improving interoperability of open source solutions and fostering collaboration amongst their respective companies, so it’s gratifying to see this level of collaboration happening in our industry today."

According to the survey, a large majority of companies – or 84.5 percent – participating, sell open source products or services than run onMicrosoft ( News - Alert ) Windows or otherwise interoperate with Microsoft products

"Microsoft is an important partner to numerous open source companies and will continue to be more so moving forward," said Anthony Gold (News - Alert ), vice president and general manager for the Open Source Business at Unisys and an OSA board member in Thursday’s statement.

"Enterprises need to maximize their IT resources and many realize that a hybrid Microsoft-open source environment can be the best option for their requirements."

Conducted in late June, the survey examined a number of topics of interest to the open source community. The survey revealed that 85 percent of companies surveyed have operations outside the U.S. and of those, 58 percent say they see more widespread open source adoption outside the U.S.

Another 72 percent of participants say software as a service (SaaS (News - Alert )) is an important part of their business strategy. More than half of those companies participating in the survey were concerned about interoperability between open source applications. Another 79 percent said that their companies were concerned about interoperability between open source and proprietary solutions.

This survey highlights the trend throughout the global economy to look to open source software solutions due to their accessibility and the associated cost. Companies are seeking ways to cut costs without losing functionality in their systems.

Open source and SaaS offer solutions that can extend functionality, while also lowering costs. Before making the move to open source, all companies must examine the benefits and the associated risks of the solution to determine the right fit.

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Source: http://fonality-phone-systems.tmcnet.com/topics/fonality-phone-systems/articles/35139-osa-survey-examines-open-source-software-growth.htm