ENTERPRISEOPEN SOURCE

THE STATE OF

A RED HAT ® REPORT

2019 | Research conducted by Illuminas

completes fromthe United States

Without a doubt, the most exciting technological innovations occurring today are taking shape

in open source communities. Major developments in big data, automation, machine learning,

and artificial intelligence are the result of smart, globally distributed teams sharing resources,

making unconventional connections, and challenging one another to advance the state of the art.

As a result, those innovations move at a truly stunning pace. Enterprises that want to

integrate them into their business, explore their possibilities, and use them to create new

value for customers can feel overwhelmed—especially when they need to balance their

desire to innovate with their need for stability and consistency.

Red Hat understands this tension. As an open organization, we sit at the interface of two

universes: the fast-moving, open source upstream and enterprises looking to transform their

innovation models. For more than 25 years, we've been making powerful, game-changing

open source technologies enterprise ready. We're not just experts in open source. We're experts

in enterprise open source.

That's why I'm excited to share "The State of Enterprise Open Source" report, which Red Hat

sponsored. The report details how and why open source solutions are making their way into

enterprises with such remarkable momentum. And it explains some of the ways customers

are turning to open source tools for modernizing their approaches to IT.

The question is no longer whether your enterprise should adopt open technologies. The

question is when—and how. We hope this report catalyzes future conversations about the

reasons organizations in all industries are choosing to innovate the open source way.

Jim WhitehurstPresident and CEO, Red Hat

WHY ENTERPRISE OPEN SOURCE MATTERS

400TOTAL INTERVIEWS were conducted with IT leaders worldwide

950 150 150

Respondents were unaware that Red Hat was the sponsor of this survey. Respondents had to to influence purchase decisions for one of the following within their organization: app development, app infrastructure, cloud, storage, middleware, server OS, or virtualization. Respondents had to be familiar with enterprise open source, and have at least 1% Linux® installed at their organization.*LATAM includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico; English-speaking APAC includes Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Research conducted in 2018. 01

completes from Latin America*

completes from the United Kingdom

completes from English-speaking Asia Pacific*

250

ABOUT THIS REPORTCommentary throughout the report is written by Gordon Haff, a technology evangelist at Red Hat. He writes about technology, trends, and their business impact. He is a frequent speaker at customer and industry events. He has authored books including How Open Source Ate Software and From Pots and Vats to Programs and Apps.

US

UK

APAC

LATAM

Very important

Important

Not at all important

02How important is enterprise open source to your organization’s overall enterprise infrastructure software strategy?

The question today isn’t whether open source software is important to enterprises, especially in infrastructure roles. That’s a given. Only a negligible 1% dismisses the importance of open source software entirely. 69% say it’s at least very important—a high bar. The fact that these numbers will be unsurprising to many is just one indication of the key role open source software has come to play in the enterprise.

Enterprise open source plays a strategic role

8%1%

21%39%30%

21%

2%15%23%37%24%

5%21%44%30%

15%36%28%

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

10%

1%

29%

40%

20%

Extremely important

Somewhatimportant

TOTAL

IMPORTANCEOF ENTERPRISE OPEN SOURCE

Extremely important Very important Important Somewhat important Not at all important

03Where in your IT infrastructure is your organization using enterprise open source solutions or technologies?

Enterprise open source in use across the organization We expect to see open source used in the areas that grew up with internet and web standards—or that are associated with emerging open source technologies, like containers. However, we are increasingly seeing open source used in categories that have historically been more associated with proprietary applications. These categories include, but are not limited to, cloud management, security, analytics, and storage.

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

WHERE IS ENTERPRISE OPEN SOURCE BEING USED?

Security42%42%

Cloudmanagement tools43%43% Databases41%41%

Big dataand analytics42%42%Website

development45%45%45% US

44% UK

41% APAC

46% LATAM

46% US

37% UK

48% APAC

37% LATAM

38% US

43% UK

40% APAC

50% LATAM

42% US

48% UK

41% APAC

37% LATAM

39% US

39% UK

43% APAC

43% LATAM

Web servers38%38%36% US

42% UK

34% APAC

42% LATAM

Historically, open source software has been used in IT infrastructure modernization to update proprietary operating systems, application servers, and virtualization software. However, this survey also shows the widespread use of open source in many aspects of modern application development, as well as business-level organizational initiatives such as digital transformation.

WHAT IS ENTERPRISE OPEN SOURCE BEING USED FOR?

04For what is your organization using enterprise open source solutions or technologies?

Enterprise open source modernizes the enterprise

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

Applicationdevelopment43%43%

44% US

35% UK

38% APAC

49% LATAM

Applicationintegration43%43%

45% US

41% UK

48% APAC

40% LATAM

IT infrastructuremodernization53%53%

52% US

48% UK

52% APAC

59% LATAM

DevOps40%40%50% US

32% UK

37% APAC

31% LATAM

Applicationmodernization42%42%

40% US

36% UK

42% APAC

47% LATAM

Digitaltransformation42%42%

39% US

49% UK

40% APAC

45% LATAM

TOP BENEFITS OF USING ENTERPRISE OPEN SOURCE SOLUTIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES

05

Innovation and security rank among the top benefits of using enterprise open source solutions While they may wish they didn’t have to, IT decision makers almost always have to closely examine the cost of solutions. Enterprise open source has long excelled in cost savings, so it’s not surprising to see low total cost of ownership identified as an important open source benefit. But when you look just a bit further down the list of benefits, you also see innovation, better security, and higher quality.

Enterprise open source is increasingly used not because it’s cheaper—though it often is— but because it’s genuinely better software. Organizations report benefiting from its community-driven upstream innovation and enterprise-level support, which helps organizations more safely use open source technology.

Higher qualitysoftware

Access to enterprise-level support

26%26% 25%25% 25%25%Ability to customize applications

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

Lower totalcost of ownership

33%33%38% US

27% UK

29% APAC

30% LATAM

24% US

29% UK

27% APAC

29% LATAM

25% US

26% UK

29% APAC

24% LATAM

Access to thelatest innovations

29%29%29% US

27% UK

31% APAC

31% LATAM

29%29%Bettersecurity

28% US

30% UK

30% APAC

30% LATAM

25% US

30% UK

25% APAC

22% LATAM

What would you consider to be the top three benefits of using enterprise open source solutions or technologies?(Respondents were allowed to select up to three responses.)

06What would you consider to be the top three barriers to using enterprise open source solutions or technologies? (Respondents were allowed to select up to three responses.)

Despite the prevalence of enterprise open source, residual concerns still existSecurity is still cited as an open source concern. Some of that fear likely stems from general security concerns since hacks and data breaches seem to be daily news. This concern may also reflect how unmanaged open source code—found across the web or brought in through dependencies—can introduce vulnerabilities in both open source and proprietary solutions. However, using trusted sources for enterprise open source software, with automated tools to quickly uncover and remediate security problems, can significantly reduce the potential for security issues.

BARRIERS TO USING ENTERPRISE OPEN SOURCE

APAC LATAMUS

37%UK

42% 37% 37%38%38%Security of the code

35%35%Level of support

US UK APAC LATAM

36% 31% 31% 40%

35%35%Compatibility

US UK APAC LATAM

32% 37% 36% 38%

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

I.T. LEADER, SYDNEY

You're paying for more than

support. You're paying for

hardening—making certain

that the distro is stable and

security patches are released

on time.

I.T. LEADER, MELBOURNE

A lot of the enterprise-level

software has an open source

component, but it’s provided for

you by a company that charges

for support. An enterprise

needs that level of support.

07How has the use of enterprise open source at your organization changed over the past 12 months? Do you expect your organization’s use of enterprise open source to increase, decrease, or stay the same over the next 12 months?

Use of enterprise open source is increasing—and growth is expected to continueOpen source is powering innovation at many organizations, and its importance is reflected in its increased use—both looking back over the past year and looking forward to the next. A majority of organizations have increased their use of enterprise open source and plan to continue that growth. Equally noteworthy is the tiny percentage of organizations that have decreased—or plan to decrease—their use. The trend is clear.

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

INCREASE STAYTHE SAME

DECREASE

Change in use of enterprise open source over the past 12 months

Change in use of enterprise open source over the next 12 months

INCREASE STAYTHE SAME

DECREASE

US

69%

3%

28%

UK

65%

5%

29%

APAC

64%

3%

34%

LATAM

69%

2%

28%

US

58%

39%

2%

UK

59%

40%

1%

APAC

2%

45%

52%

LATAM

1%

33%

65%

68% 59%29% 39%3% 2%

Stay the sameIncrease Decrease

08

*than IT leaders who do not expect to use more enterprise open source in the next year

Approximately what percentage of your organization’s software is proprietary vs. open source now / two years from now? (‘Other’ responses not reported.)

For us, this is our way to become more agile. That’s our biggest push. We don’t want dependency upon these proprietary companies. We want those shackles to be broken. We still want support because we’re not ready to take off the guardrails.

Organizations planning to use more enterprise open source invest in innovation

IT leaders who expect to use

more enterprise open source

in the next year are more

likely to*:

A common thread we see in open source research is that the more familiar organizations are with open source software, the more likely they are to understand the benefits they can receive from it. Familiarity breeds appreciation. The appreciation extends over many areas— from infrastructure, through management, to automation in its many forms. At a higher level, it’s connected to where innovation is happening and the platforms and tools needed to remove innovation’s constraints.

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

I.T. LEADER, NEW YORK

Modernize IT infrastructure and applications.

Manage hybrid or multiclouds.

Move legacy applications to the cloud.

Use enterprise open source for automation and configuration, cloud management tools, app servers, and databases.

Report higher quality as a top benefit of enterprise open source software.

Approximately what percentage of your organization’s software is proprietary vs. open source now / two years from now? (‘Other’ responses not reported.)

09Do you expect your organization’s use of containers to increase, decrease, or stay the same over the next 12 months?

Usage today Expected in two years

Expect to see growth in enterprise open source and containers, while proprietary software use decreases

Enterprise open source software

Proprietary software60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Expected changein use of containers(in the next 12 months)

INCREASE

STAY THE SAME

DECREASE

Enterprises still use a lot of proprietary software. Change is slow. But proprietary software is waning to the point where its use is expected to be at near parity with open source within two years. We’ve already seen some of the broad reasons for this shift: innovation, quality, and value. But we also see this transition powered by more specific technologies. Take containers, for example. Along with much of what is going on in the cloud-native space in general, containers are almost entirely a product of collaborative open source development. 67% of organizations plan to increase their use of containers over the next year. That’s because of open source.

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

26%

55%

36%

41%

US

69%

23%

7%

UK

15%

23%

62%

APAC

14%

27%

59%

LATAM

6%

24%

69%

67%

24%

9%

10

T H E S T A T E O F E N T E R P R I S E O P E N S O U R C E

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver reliable and high-performing Linux, hybrid cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Red Hat helps customers integrate new and existing IT applications, develop cloud-native applications, standardize on our industry-leading operating system, and automate, secure, and manage complex environments. Award-winning support, training, and consulting services make Red Hat a trusted adviser to the Fortune 500. As a strategic partner to cloud providers, system integrators, application vendors, customers, and open source communities, Red Hat can help organizations prepare for the digital future.

About Red Hat

Copyright © 2019 Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Shadowman, and the Red Hat logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.