Set Your Content Free: Why You Need an Open-source Strategy

Set Your Content Free: Why You Need an Open-source Strategy for ECM Matt Asay Vice President, Business Development Alfresco

I Bring Good News

The economy’s silver lining

Open source interest is growing

Several ways to save Source: Gartner Number of respondents = 274; Mean summary: Three responses allowed. Survey Question: Select your organization’s top three most important reasons for using open-source software.

Savings/benefits that prove themselves in practice 87% 92% 86% 82% 84% 82% 91%

The open-source model lowers risk

Most IT projects fail

Open source de-risks software acquisition:

Try before you buy

Stop your subscription if the vendor stops providing value

Dramatically lower cost

Worst case:

Project dies and you’re out $xx,xxx or $xxx,xxx, not $x,xxx,xxx

IT project failure becomes less probabilistic and less painful

But Isn’t Open Source a Fad?

Not a question of “if,” but rather “when” and “how” Whether measured in terms of lines of code added or new projects, open-source growth is phenomenal

Momentum is growing Source: Gartner 2008 Number of respondents = 274; Multiple responses allowed. Survey Question: Do you use, or plan to use in the next budget year, an open-source project or product as an alternative to commercial software? ~100% to adopt open-source by 2010

What about open-source CMS adoption? Source: Forrester, 2009 56% to adopt open-source CMS by 2010

Better quality, more innovative software at a much lower price