Credit crunch moves business to adopt open source

UK businesses and government agencies are increasingly adopting open source technology solutions as the credit crunch takes hold, according to open source firm Alfresco Software.

It was claimed to be a reversal of the trend seen during the second half of 2007, with companies looking for better value for money when renewing software licenses. The UK, traditionally cautious when it came to open source, also had the second strongest growth market after the US.

Alfresco then proceeded to reel off a list of customers which were in the process of rolling out its Enterprise Content Management (ECM) open source solutions this year, including Betfair, National Rail and Bristol City Council.

It claimed open source offered reductions in license fees as well as the benefit of not being tied-in' to propriety software.

"The world is undergoing serious economic turbulence, but at a time when businesses know they simply cannot terminate IT projects, open source software providers the perfect solution," claimed John Powell, Alfresco chief executive.

He said that with open source, public and private sector companies resisted the demands of proprietary vendors, created a flexible infrastructure as well as lower IT spend.

He added: "Open source powers the internet today and that low cost scalability is coming to UK enterprises. Today the agenda is reducing cost and improving productivity with resources that you have."