Enterprises eye open source and Web 2.0

Businesses are increasingly using mixed open source and proprietary environments as they continue to look for Web 2.0 tools.

This was according to an open source survey by Enterprise Content Management (ECM) company Alfresco of its own customers. More than half (66 per cent) of Alfresco open source users wanted access to content which reflected a Web 2.0 experience.

The majority of users had no real preference for the choice of a blog or wiki, but when they did it was usually an open source market leader such as WordPress.

The research also showed that more than half of Alfresco's open source users evaluated enterprise content management (ECM) software on Windows.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, the vast majority did not intend to use Silverlight, its programmable web browser plug-in, or .NET/Web Parts.

Instead more than half (52 per cent) were looking at using ECM solutions based on Java architecture and AJAX, with their own integrated Web 2.0 tools.

"One conclusion is Windows respondents are looking for an open source alternative to Sharepoint and want a Java architecture," said Dr Ian Howells, chief marketing officer for Alfresco software.

Red Hat and Ubuntu continued to lead in open source operating system usage, while users continued to prefer evaluating on Windows and deploying on Linux.