Asia finds security in open source

Better security protection tops the list of buying criteria for open source software, reveals a new study conducted on Australia, China, India and Korea.

According to IDC's latest study released Friday on open source trends and challenges, security was the top reason for deploying open source technology, followed by budget constraints and the availability of better management tools and utilities.

"The results indicate that organizations perceived open source technology as providing better security compared to proprietary products," said Prianka Srinivasan, a market analyst for IDC Asia-Pacific.

The study also concluded that more SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) were using open source compared to large businesses, while India and China seemed to be the bigger adopters of open source compared to Australia and Korea.

Although cost-efficiency remained a key decision factor, Srinivasan said, the results also suggested that organizations looked to primarily fulfill their requirements for specific functionalities.

The study also revealed a growing interest in the adoption of open source versions of "higher-end" software beyond the current infrastructure and database applications.

According to Srinivasan, survey respondents showed an interest in open source versions of CRM (customer relationship management) and BPM (business performance management) tools. This, she said, suggested that "organizations will increasingly incorporate open source technology in more mission-critical applications".

The analyst firm also advised commercial vendors of open source software to focus on support services and ensure interoperability between their products and others in the market, so as to take advantage of the growing market.