Open Source has arrived in German companies

German politicians have recently been increasingly focusing on the topic of open source software (OSS). Only recently, the Petitions Committee of the German Bundestag backed the call for OSS to be given preference in public tenders in future.

However, it is not only politicians who are increasingly convinced of the benefits; the German economy is also already relying on OSS to a large extent. Bitkom and its partners have conducted a comprehensive study on the topic of OSS, which provides impressive proof of this.

Those responsible for the topic from over 800 German companies with 100 employees or more were surveyed. The results of the Bitkom Open Source Monitor 2019 make it clear: OSS is no longer a niche topic.

Three quarters of respondents are very open to the topic, particularly in the retail and automotive industries - with approval ratings of around 80 percent.

In contrast, only four percent of respondents were opposed to the topic. The advantages of OSS therefore appear to be well known across all sectors:

With OSS, companies are independent of individual providers and instead rely on a broad selection of open source components. These support open standards, ensure compatibility with other tools used and can be customized according to individual requirements.

But not only are many companies open to OSS, many are already one step ahead: over two thirds of the companies surveyed are already using OSS.

Even if the majority of users do not adapt the source code themselves, the figures make it clear that OSS is not only gaining acceptance, but is also becoming increasingly important as a tangible alternative to proprietary software.

However, the general open-mindedness and widespread use of OSS should not hide the fact that many of the companies surveyed have not yet dealt with the topic in depth.

For example, 77 percent of companies lack an OSS strategy and almost half of those surveyed were unable to name a person explicitly responsible for this topic.

As a result, OSS is usually only dealt with marginally in day-to-day operations. Security aspects, individual adaptations or general software optimization are often not given sufficient consideration.

This is also reflected in the participants' main reasons for not using OSS in their company: 70 percent cited security concerns as the main reason for not using it, 63 percent blamed a lack of expertise and 59 percent of respondents cited a lack of specialist staff as the main reason.