“Open Source software is raising havoc throughout the software market. It is the ultimate in disruptive technology, and while to it is only 6% of estimated trillion dollars IT budgeted annually, it represents a real loss of $60 billion in annual revenues to software companies,” said Jim Johnson, The Standish Group International. Five years of research has gone into this new report titled “Trends in Open Source.” The Open Source report discusses The Standish group’s research study of the top 10 drivers that are influencing decisions on how IT is adopting open source technology. “The Standish Group’s new study clearly shows how pervasive Open Source Software is used in industry today. It is a shocking examination of Open Source usage by commercial and government organizations,” said Timothy Chou, Ph.D., former President of Oracle OnDemand and author of “The End of Software: Transforming Your Business for the On Demand Future,” “The Standish Group has successfully quantified both user and market behavior so that we may more fully understand what is driving this IT trend.”

If the $60 billion is anywhere closer to the real figure, then it is time to re-look at open source world, and its impact on traditional vendors. We’ve known there is a big effect, but it is only now that we have some concrete numbers ($60 billion is a mind boggling). And this is now real competition, real money, real business strategies. I am sure biggies at Microsoft and Oracle are reading this report now.

It’s a great time to be an open source company.

[I am trying to get a review copy of the report, and will update this post if I manage to get it]