Report: Subscriptions to Surge for Open-Source Licensing

One out of five applications will be licensed by subscription within five years, respondents said, thanks to goodies such as remote management, security monitoring and more.

Open source has it all over traditional software when it comes to cost, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock-in. According to a new study from Northbridge Venture Partners on the future of open source, released on March 25 in conjunction with the Open Source Business Conference, those were the top three factors that make open source attractive.

The annual survey-which included input from OSBC attendees and customers from Ingres, Sun Microsystems, SugarCRM, Ubuntu and Acquia-aims to examine the future direction and current position of open source in the marketplace.

According to the survey, a little over half of respondents-51 percent-consider open source not only a viable business model, but a development model and a marketing model. What's more, the survey showed that within five years, about half of the companies would be buying 50 percent or more of their software in open-source configurations.  

Read the full story at midmarket.eweek.com.