90 percent of SaaS providers to use open source by 2010

Gartner seems to have checked its former open-source blindness at the door, and is now suggesting that 90 percent of all software-as-a-service providers will adopt open source in their infrastructure by 2010.

Cost cutting will lead to the move, said (Gartner)...Open source will be used in the operating system, application server, and at a database level and will make up 30 percent of an application.

Of course it will. Open source is the foundation of software innovation in the 21st century.

One big question remains, however: will open source provide SaaS' free lunch or will there be a quid pro quo? With AGPL and the Open Software License, it will be the latter. With 20th century open-source licenses, however, SaaS gets a free ride.

The more open-source software we want, the more open-source software we should be prepared to pay for, whether in cash or contributions. This is a fair exchange, and will provide the basis for a robust SaaS software economy for many, many years to come.

[ctkeene]

I agree with you that the winds of open source freedom will soon be blowing thrown the SaaS world as well!

Although SaaS development platforms like SalesForce and Coghead have gotten a lot of attention, this marekt has so far been remarkably closed and proprietary. The Platform as a Service leader, SalesForce, has both a draconian hosting policy (host your apps and data anywhere, as long as it's with us!) but also a proprietary language (who needs Java when you've got Apex!?).

I wrote more on this here:

http://www.keeneview.com/2008/05/saas-platforms-for-isvs-who-wins.html

[easy2share]

Can't agree more. In today's Open Source world, proprietary stuff wouldn't last. There would be several emerging startups that would challenge salesforce.com etc.

easy2share
http://www.easy2share.com (Information hub for entrepreneurs)