02 Nov 2009

OS software 'attractive to firms'

Businesses are being attracted to open source (OS) software in order to reduce IT infrastructure costs, it has been claimed.

Paul Cronin, director at risk management service provider Pentura, said the internet is a huge resource for businesses to take advantage of, with OS programs often available to meet the needs of IT departments.

The only drawback, he noted, was the lack of IT support should anything go wrong, although this can be remedied with a little online research.

"When I get an issue, I've got to then rely on the community to help me resolve those issues and nine times out of ten they've been better than when I've used commercial-type software," he commented.

According to OS software developer SourceForge.net, as of February 2009 more than 230,000 software projects had been registered on the site.

Furthermore, the site has two million registered users and acts as a useful barometer of the total size of the open source sector.