Weighing The Hidden Costs Of Open Source

February 15, 2021 Alex Woodie

One of the perceived benefits of using open source software is cost. It’s often free to obtain, and users can get technical support au gratis through community supported websites. But what is often missing from that equation are hidden costs associated with running that software in production environments. An IDC report commissioned from IBM seeks to put a number to those costs.

In production environments, where the risk of a business interruption due to IT issues is high, companies must make the conscious decision to dedicate some of its staff’s time to supporting a given piece of open source software, …