When anyone wonders about open source, the first word that comes to their mind is ‘free’. It’s somewhat true when it comes to open source, because the technology is available practically at no cost and with just a few license restrictions. This has been one of the main reasons that contributed to the rising demand of open source development services in the recent years. However, for enterprises, the reasons for choosing open source technologies is quite different. 

Smart businesses today relate open source technologies to increased business agility – a quality that’s valuable in today’s dynamic marketplace. 

Here are 3 major reasons why modern day enterprises consider open source important for accelerated business growth. 

Open source reduces business risks

This remains an unsung trait of open source technologies. Generally, using open source tools reduce dependence on single or multiple vendors and may reduce business risks as well. Vendors may have their commercial priorities changed while the focus of the community remains unchanged. It is in fact the transparency and openness of open source that mitigates business risks. 

The vendor may stop developing code for a product that isn’t commercially viable anymore. The source code and repositories won’t be accessible afterwards. But if you have a vibrant, supportive community built around the code, the application would still be alive and more resilient than a commercial enterprise. 

Open source is low cost yet cost-effective

Regardless of an organization’s size, open source’s cost savings is probably its most alluring trait. A good example is Netflix. Netflix is built on open source which is why they charge only a small amount per month for their services. Essentially, open source is the lego blocks businesses get, with which they can take time creating what they want. This is also one of the many reasons behind the rising demand for PHP development services today. 

With open source, customizing enterprise solutions become much less expensive without compromising the benefits of such solutions. In most cases, there won’t be upfront capital costs. This can be particularly useful for SMBs that are looking for good investments to get a solid start. 

Open source improves business agility

This might probably be one of the many points a reputed software development company in Dubai would state about open source technologies. By speeding up the pace of software development, open source enables businesses to react to marketplace demands quickly, which translates to improved business agility. 

Businesses leveraging open source code are not restricted by vendors’ upgrade timelines. Waiting for the vendors to release updates with the changes a business would want obviously slows down the business’ growth and limits its capabilities to innovate. 

So, conclusively, open source grants the ability to create new applications quickly and economically regardless of the business’ size but empowering them to take on bigger projects for faster growth. This makes it a viable option in today’s dynamic market conditions.