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2010 Trends in Open Source Management

Survey

Executive Summary .......................................... 2 I. Introduction.................................................... 4 II. Open Source Experience............................ 7 III. Top Open Source Opportunities for

2010 ...................................................................12 IV. Trends in Systems Management ............14

2010 Open Source Systems Management Survey This survey on systems management usage was conducted from 2006 through 2009. Polling was conducted at the USENIX Large Installation System Administration conference each year from 2006 and 2009 and within the Zenoss open source systems management community from 2007-2009. The purpose being to determine usage patterns for systems management software and particularly the usage of open source software to solve IT management needs of large organizations.

Results of the survey are published at: http://community.zenoss.org

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Executive Summary Zenoss conducted surveys on systems management in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 to determine systems management usage trends among IT professionals who attended the USENIX Large Installation System

Administration (LISA) conference and members of the Zenoss open source systems management community. The purpose of the survey was to identify the latest trends and usage of systems management software. The results of the survey included responses from 974 respondents

2010 Outlook

98% of the survey respondents indicated usage of open source in their enterprises. 66% of Zenoss Community respondents indicate that they prefer to use open source software whenever

possible. When asked their degree of satisfaction with open source software on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 indicating

most satisfied) users indicated an average level of satisfaction between 7 and 8.

76% of system administrators in large enterprises (USENIX LISA participants) indicate they prefer to use open source whenever possible.

The compelling factors for using open source as noted by the Zenoss Community were flexibility followed by cost savings.

The number one reason for not choosing open source solutions was lack of support followed by poor documentation.

Though lack of support was the most popular response for not using open source over 46% of respondents cited that there was no reason not to use open source.

Quality of Support was the number one reason organizations indicated they chose proprietary management tools.

50% of respondents indicated that they are already using some form of cloud technology including but not limited to hosted applications, Amazon Web services and/or hosted storage.

The top IT management priorities for 2010 where monitoring, configuration management, patching and provisioning and security.

Open Source Management Trends (Multiple Years)

71% of 2009 respondents indicated that open source software was easier to deploy up from 48% in 2008, 38% in 2007 and 26% in 2006.

29% of all 2009 USENIX LISA respondents and 40% of Zenoss Community respondents indicated that due to tighter budgets they had investigated open source software in 2010 up from 26% and 33% in 2008

In Fall of 2009, 14% of Zenoss community members had noted the economy had made them more apt to use open source software for fiscal reasons, double that of 7% in previous year

40% of respondents planned to adhere to ITIL best practices in 2010, up from 33% in 2008 and 32% in 2007

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I. Introduction The Zenoss Open Source Systems Management Survey is one of the most comprehensive studies to date on open source systems management usage. This report includes data provided by attendees of the USENIX LISA conference and the usage preferences of the 75,000+ members of the Zenoss community, as collected from

November 2006 to December 2009. The goal of this survey was to evaluate the use of open source software for in comparison to commercial solutions.

Methodology

Zenoss has conducted the open source systems management survey during the annual USENIX Large Installation Systems Administrators Conference for four years starting in 2006. In parallel, the Zenoss user community was also surveyed, using the same survey tool. In 2008 the groups were surveyed separately, while in 2007 and 2006

the participants were surveyed as one group. Collection was conducted via written survey of USENIX attendees and by an electronic survey mechanism provided by SurveyMonkey.com.

In 2008 and 2009 data was from the Zenoss user community and the LISA attendees separately. In 2006 and 2007 a smaller set of data was collected and there was no distinction between the Zenoss Community and the

attendees of the USENIX LISA conference.

Sample

The survey sample is biased by a few factors. The first sample LISA attendees are users who are participating in a

specific organization, albeit one geared towards best practices in computing. The Zenoss Community sample is also biased towards users who have selected to be part of the Zenoss open source community. Given these biases it is still reasonable to believe the results hold value to those organizations looking at best practices

among large server installations. In total the survey has encompassed responses from 974 total respondents.

About USENIX Founded in 1975, USENIX, the Advanced Computing Systems Association (http://www.usenix.org) is an organization dedicated to fostering excellence and innovation and disseminating research with a practical bias.

USENIX is a neutral forum for discussion of technical issues and encourages outreach to the community at large.

About Zenoss

Zenoss Core is an award winning open source network monitoring and systems management project that

delivers the functionality to effectively manage the configuration, health and performance of networks, servers and applications through a single, integrated software package. The Zenoss Community is comprised of over 75,000 active members who are instrumental in evolving the solution as well as providing timely support and

help for all questions. One of the most active projects on SourceForge, Zenoss Core has been downloaded over one million times and is being used by companies in over 180 countries. The Zenoss Core project is sponsored by Zenoss Inc., a commercial open source independent software vendor. For more information on Zenoss Core,

visit http://community.zenoss.org.

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About Zenoss Inc.

Zenoss is a leading commercial open source provider of Unlegacy enterprise IT management products. Zenoss Enterprise is a single model-based product that enables organizations to seamlessly manage physical, virtual and cloud based infrastructure with unprecedented power, agility and value. Leveraging a commercial open source

model, Zenoss products monitor over one million network and server devices daily and have been used in over 25,000 organizations in 180 countries around the world. Commercial customers include leading companies such as Rackspace, VMware, LinkedIn, Carlson, Motorola and Deutsche Bank. To learn more about Zenoss' award-

winning IT operations management software, visit http://www.zenoss.com.

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2010 Open Source Systems Management Outlook This survey is the result of four years of survey data among different groups as defined below with the report focusing on current trends. As the survey has evolved, so has the method for delivering the survey. The survey participants summarized in the charts indicate the size of 2010 sample including input from 974 individual

participants. Over 500 individuals informed the 2010 Outlook.

1. Size of Managed Infrastructure and Role

The following questions were used to establish the background of the participants and the infrastructure they

manage. Survey respondents were asked the size of their organization including demographics of the infrastructure they manage (servers, network devices, desktops, etc.). More than 50% of all respondents managed more than 100 network devices.

Figure 1.1 - Results derived from the request, How many devices do you manage?

Figure 1.2 - Results Derived from the request, What is your role in your organization?

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II. Open Source Experience Participants responded to inquiries about their companies preferences for open source usage.

Figure 2.1 - Zenoss Community responses to the request What is your organization's stance on using open source?

Figure 2.2 USENIX LISA responses to the request,What is your organizations stance on using Open Source?

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Figure 2.3 - Zenoss Community responses to the request, What effect has the economy had on your usage of open source software?

Figure 2.3 - USENIX LISA responses to the request, What effect has the economy had on your usage of open

source software?

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Figure 2.4 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, What open source management tools have you used? (Check all that apply)

Figure 2.5 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, What is your level of satisfaction

with open source systems management tools? (1 -- least satisfied -- to 10 -- most satisfied). USENIX LISA participants indicated an average level of satisfaction of 7.65 out of 10 while Zenoss Community members indicated an average of 7.36 out of 10 level of satisfaction with open source software.

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Figure 2.6 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, Why did you or would you be likely to try open source software?

Figure 2.7 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, Are there any reasons you didn't

or wouldn't use open source?

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Figure 2.8 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, What do you believe is the biggest advantage of proprietary software?

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III. Top Open Source Opportunities for 2010 This series of questions was meant to elicit responses on systems management plans for 2010 specifically those around open source software.

Figure 3.1 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, What are your most pressing IT

administration and management issues for 2010?

Figure 3.2 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, What are the top areas of IT management that you plan to use open source tools?

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Figure 3.3 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, Is your organization adhering to or planning to implement practices that adhere to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)?

Figure 3.4 - Zenoss Community and USENIX LISA responses to the request, Does your company use any of

the following "Cloud Technologies"?

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IV. Trends in Systems Management Over the course of four annual surveys the following patterns emerged among respondents and have been highlighted below.

I. Ease of Deployment Reason for Open Source Usage

When asked the question, Why did you or would you be likely to try open source software? respondents have increasingly indicated Easy to Deploy as a top reason for trying open source. This could indicate not only the

removal of technical hurdles but avoidance of bureaucratic obstacles that may exist in the traditional technology procurement process. In 2006 only 26% of all respondents indicated this as a reason for using open source while in 2009, 71% of all respondents indicated this as a reason for using open source.

Figure 4.1

II. Effect of the Economy on Open Source Software

Since first asking the question, What effect has the economy had on your usage of open source software? In 2008 at least 25% of respondents in all survey groups indicated that the economy or implied savings was an indicator of open source software usage. In 2009 the trend was slightly higher:

Figure 4.2

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Source Data:

2009 Zenoss Community

2009 USENIX

LISA 2008 USENIX

LISA

2008 Zenoss

Community Some, we investigate open source as result of tighter budgets 26% 19% 12% 26% Significant effect, more apt to use open source for fiscal reasons 14% 10% 14% 7%

III. Increase in ITIL Adherence

Since first asking the question Is your organization adhering to or planning to implement practices that adhere

to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)? three years ago their has been an increase in the percentage of respondents who are looking to

Figure 4.3

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IV. Product Features a Rising Advantage for Proprietary Software

When asked, What do you believe the biggest advantage of proprietary software? the 2009 survey responses indicated a rise in respondents indicating that product features were playing a greater role of importance in the perceived advantages of open source adoption. In 2009, 33% of all respondents indicated that product features

played a bigger part in defining the advantages of open source software up from 10% in the previous year.

Figure 4.4