Whether video conferencing, office software or graphics processing - there are now also open source solutions for many applications. A large proportion of companies in Germany now use open source. 69 % of German businesses use such solutions. Only 18 % are opposed to open source.
These are the results of the “Open Source Monitor 2023” published by the digital association Bitkom. For the Monitor, 1,155 companies with 20 or more employees in Germany and 102 people from public administration were surveyed. “Open source is not a nerdy niche in the digital world. The technology offers companies concrete advantages, such as customised solutions or even the possibility to comprehensively check a software for security vulnerabilities”, explains Bitkom President Dr Ralf Wintergerst. “But it also offers opportunities for Germany as a business location and helps to get closer to the goal of digital sovereignty.”
Need to catch up on strategy
The biggest advantages are cost savings, cited by 35%, and access to source code (16%), followed by ease of customisation (7%) and switching providers (6%). The most important criterion in the selection of appropriate solutions for companies that already use the technology is functionality. This is mentioned by 95 % of the companies. Security and available security certifications (93%) as well as the presentation of authorship and rights ownership (85%) are also very important.
Every second company (51%) contributes to the success of open source. Most often through paid support or licences for paid enterprise versions of corresponding solutions (41 %). In every fourth company (25 %), however, teams or individual employees also actively work on projects in the community and 15 % make modified source code available again themselves. However, the use is often not yet strategically approached in the companies. Only one in three (32%) has a strategy.
