Enterprise adoption of open-source software (OSS) is soaring despite significant ongoing challenges.
According to the 2025 State of Open-Source Report by Perforce, 96% of organisations increased or maintained their use of open-source software in the past year, with over a quarter (25.71%) reporting a significant increase.
This surge in open-source adoption is consistent across company sizes, although the largest enterprises (over 5,000 employees) showed the most substantial growth, with 68% increasing or significantly increasing their OSS usage.
“Open-source is the engine driving innovation in big data, AI, and beyond—but adoption alone isn’t enough,” said Gael Blondelle, Chief Membership Officer of the Eclipse Foundation.
“To unlock its full potential, organisations need to invest in their people, establish the right processes, and actively contribute to the long-term sustainability and growth of the technologies they depend on.”
Open-source adoption: Cost reduction is king
For the second consecutive year, the primary motivator for adopting OSS is financial.
“No license cost/overall cost reduction” was cited by 53.33% of respondents, a jump from 37% the previous year and significantly outweighing the next reason, reducing vendor lock-in (32.86%).
This emphasis on cost savings is particularly pronounced in sectors like government/public sector (92%), retail (67%), banking (62%), telecoms (60%), and manufacturing (57%).
Perforce speculates that “ongoing economic headwinds and uncertainty are behind this trend,” pushing businesses to scrutinise IT spending and favour free OSS alternatives.
Other key drivers include the desire for open standards and interoperability (27.62%), stable technology with community support (24.29%), and reducing development or maintenance costs (22.38%).
Interestingly, improving development velocity and accessing the latest technologies were less frequently cited than in previous years, though still relevant for larger companies.
Investment priorities: Cloud, data, and languages
Organisations are primarily investing their OSS resources in cloud and container technologies (39.52%), databases and data technologies (33.33%), and programming languages and frameworks (32.86%).
The rise in investment for programming languages suggests a shift towards not just consuming OSS, but also developing with it, especially among smaller companies creating in-house solutions.
Larger enterprises are also prioritising analytics, while DevOps/GitOps/DevSecOps tooling investment grows with company size.
The persistent issue of EOL software
Despite the growth in OSS adoption, the report highlights continuing risks associated with outdated software.
25.96% of organisations are still using CentOS, even though all versions are now EOL. This figure rises to 40% among the largest enterprises.
Alarmingly, 28% of CentOS users don’t have a plan for handling newly-disclosed vulnerabilities (CVEs), and this jumps to 38% for the largest enterprises. Furthermore, 25% of these large enterprises haven’t decided on a migration plan away from CentOS.
“Enterprises using EOL software such as CentOS and AngularJS are nearly three times more likely to fail compliance audits,” the report notes.
Security patches (52.83%) and maintaining compliance (30.19%) are the biggest challenges cited by those still managing EOL CentOS servers.
Migrating off CentOS is also proving complex, with 43% anticipating it will take more than six months. Ubuntu (30.19%) is the most popular planned replacement, although 15% overall, and 25% of large enterprises, remain undecided.
Security, compliance, and skills gaps hamper open-source adoption
Beyond EOL software, broader challenges persist for open-source adoption. The top three difficulties organisations face when working with OSS are:
- Keeping up with updates and patches (63.81% rated somewhat to very challenging)
- Meeting security and compliance requirements (60.00%)
- Maintaining EOL versions (58.57%)
These interconnected issues create an “uphill battle for organisations to stay on the latest versions and/or have access to security updates and patches for EOL software”.
Skill gaps also hinder adoption, particularly in evolving areas like big data and cloud-native technologies.
Nearly half (47%) of organisations handling big data reported low confidence in managing these platforms, with over 75% citing lack of personnel and skills gaps as a major barrier.
Similarly, for cloud-native technologies like Docker (used by 59.30%) and Kubernetes (usage doubled since 2021 to 39.20%), over half (51%) stated that lack of personnel or experience is the main support challenge.
Organisations are addressing skills shortages primarily through training (49.52%), hiring external contractors/consultants (30.95%), and partnering with third-party vendors (25.24%).
The lack of “professional support and maintenance” (44.29%) is the main reason companies stick with proprietary versions of open-source-based software rather than switching to the pure OSS alternative.
Linux landscape and infrastructure staples
Ubuntu remains the dominant Linux distribution for the third year running, used by 56.73% of respondents, followed by Debian (31.73%) and the aforementioned CentOS (25.96%).
In the infrastructure software space, NGINX (50.25%), Apache HTTP Server (48.74%), and Apache Tomcat (38.19%) continue to be the most popular choices, with 71% using both NGINX and Apache HTTP.
The Perforce 2025 State of Open-Source Report suggests adoption is thriving on cost-efficiency and innovation, but grappling with the complexities of maintenance, security, compliance, and the ever-present need for skilled personnel.
(Photo by Martin Adams)
See also: Stack Overflow: Developers strongly prefer open-source AI
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