For many, the future of open source software is still unknown. While it’s used in many industries and environments, the economic crisis that was 2009 had an effect on the hopeful “boom” the new environment wanted to have.

 

With that in mind, the movement of open source software being “mainstream” has yet to evolve.

 

But when do industry execs expect that to happen? According to an article in the IT Jungle by Dan Berger, the question is when open source will be implemented in IBM (News - Alert) Power Systems and its accompanying environments.

 

And, with that, Larry Augstin, CEO of open source customer relationship management, or “CRM,” provider SugarCRM (News - Alert), said that the new technology is currently the “safe bet” as of the beginning months of 2010.

 

Why has open source yet to evolve more? According to Berger, it’s because many people have a misconception that open source is considered unprofessional.

 

That’s a pretty strong statement Berger. “And almost any open source proponent would attack the question of unreliability by replying that peer-reviewed software is more reliable than proprietary software,” he said.

 

But, according to Augustin, while the common theory is that – with IBM – there’s a safety net that will always be there; that no one gets fired for buying IBM.

 

“I think we are at the point today where no one gets fired for buying open source,” Augustin said, adding that open source has become pervasive in enterprise infrastructure.

 

In Augustin’s interview with The Four Hundred, which Berger discusses, the SugarCRM CEO stated that a Smith Barney annual CIO survey from a few years back reported that over 80 percent of Fortune 1000 CIOs have deployed or are contemplating deploying Linux.

 

“That tells you the degree to which it is out there,” Augustin said, backing up its evidence further with a Forrester (News - Alert) Research 2008 survey that showed that 58 percent of IT executives use open source for mission critical applications; 79 percent use it in their application infrastructure; and 80 percent use factors other than costs when selecting open source.

 

For SugarCRM, the adoption of this open source software has reached over 6,000 commercial customers in over 30 countries, adding up to more than 60,000 deployments.

 

I don’t know about you and me, but that sounds a lot more stable than just a “safe bet” to me.