When functionality is equivalent, IT security professionals have an almost equal preference for deploying open source software (53 percent) as commercial software (47 percent), according to a recent survey of 228 security professionals by Barracuda Networks.
In the survey, 80 percent of respondents cited pricing as the top reason for adopting open source software over commercial software, while 57 percent selected access to source code and 41 percent chose community code review as the primary reasons for open source preference.
On the other hand, the survey found that the top reason for deploying commercial software was vendor professional services, at 65 percent, while 47 percent of respondents named ease of adoption in their organization and 47 percent said automated updates were key.
Better bug fixes are one open source advantage. So is access to the source code. Proprietary software, on the other hand, benefits from the perception that it will be easier to deploy and support over time. We can argue about how long that will continue to be true. There isn't much doubt that open source also is becoming part of the larger fabric of software offered by suppliers who historically have offered proprietary solutions.
All of which suggests that open source simply has become another tool to use, when it works and when it fits.
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