97 per cent of UK businesses use open source software and 65 per cent contribute, research

Research by OpenUK finds that cost savings are the primary driver, but improving skills and collaboration are more important in some sectors

Research among 273 businesses by OpenUK found that 97 per cent were using open source software with 65 per cent also contributing to open source projects.

The not-for-profit asked businesses in the UK about their use of and participation in open source software projects, their motivations for doing so, and whether their use of open source is increasing for a report entitled State of Open - Phase Two, a follow up to an earlier report which revealed the value of open source to the UK economy to be up to £43 billion.

Ninety-seven percent of those surveyed said they were using open source tools, with languages such as Python being the most frequently cited category, followed closely by open source tools, including security utilities such as Snort, Notary and Trivy and observability tools like OpenTelemetry. Next up was the use of cloud Git repositories such as GitHub and GitLab, operating systems (e.g. Linux), and databases, for example MySQL, PostgreSQL and Cassandra.

The sector most likely to use and contribute to open source software, and indeed the largest segment in the survey, was technology media and telecoms, with use of repositories like GitHub reaching 94 per cent within this cohort, compared to 80 per cent overall.

"Even in banking and finance 93 per cent use open source operating systems, and in professional consulting and legal services, arguably the biggest sector in the UK really 63 per cent use open soft source software tools of some sort," said Jennifer Barth director of research at Smoothmedia, the consultancy that carried out the survey.

Smaller companies were found to be using open source software more than larger ones, with the primary motivation being cost savings, although in the education sector skills development and collaboration were the main objectives. Increasingly, to be able to engage in research in higher eduction it is important to share code and data in public repositories and to be aware of how to use open source tools, Barth explained during a presentation of the results yesterday.

Collaboration and contribution to open source projects was found to be highest, unsurprisingly, in the technology, media and telecoms segment, and also more likely among smaller organisations.

Adoption of open source is growing, the study found, with 48 per cent saying they were using more now than in 2019. The pandemic has been a factor in current and planned adoption for about a fifth of those surveyed, with sustainability concerns likely to drive uptake for a similar number.

In terms of skills required to develop and manage open source software, back-end developers have been most in demand over the past 12 months, but other roles including front end-developers and ‘non-engineers' (e.g. designers) will be equally sought after over the coming year, the survey found.

In the public sector, health and pharma, and also in the banking and finance sectors, cloud engineers and cloud architects top the wish list. Indeed, cloud infrastructure is of rising interest across all verticals.

OpenUK says it expects to see an increasing use of Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) as the need to manage and maintain open source software usage grows, but notes a low awareness of the OpenChain ISO 5230 Standard for open source licence compliance (just 3 per cent of organisations had implemented it) suggesting that strategies around governance are immature.

"In terms of governance, OSPOs and security there is room for growth and a need to focus on how the UK can demonstrate more leadership in these areas," the report says.

OpenUK CEO Amanda Brock said: "Open source software in the UK is about focusing locally to enhance our skills and businesses in the UK whilst collaborating globally to create diverse and sustainable code."

"An incredible 97 per cent of surveyed respondents use some form of open source software in UK business. For the UK, its excellence in open source software-based infrastructure is an important part of this picture. This is likely to develop more in the coming months and years."