Open source software programs play an important role in how DevOps and open source best practices are adopted by organizations, according to a survey conducted by The New Stack and The Linux Foundation (via the TODO Group). By implementing open source best practices, organizations are helping developers become both more productive and more structured in how they manage the often abundant open source software their businesses rely on.
In total, 748 people provided information for our survey, nearly half of them developers. Company size was broadly represented, with 21 percent of respondents working at large companies with more than 10,000 employees, and 42 percent from small and mid-size companies with 250 or fewer employees. The survey methodology is explained at the end of this article. The results shine a light on how open source programs are organized and what role they constitute in organizations.
Large technology companies are leading the way in establishing open source programs to create and nurture best practices. Their substantial developer teams heavily rely on open source components. Outside of this group, all industries have adopted open source programs at an average close to 37 percent, but with varying expectations for the programs. Other significant survey results include:
- More than half of respondents (53 percent) across all industries say their organization has an open source software program or has plans to establish one.
- Large companies are about twice as likely to run an open source program than smaller companies (63 percent vs. 37 percent.)
- Based on the 49 respondents that self-identified as working at a company on the Forbes Global 2000 list, we expect that the number of large companies with open source programs will triple by 2020.
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