MANY technology firms are floundering amid the recession. But many of the ones that offer services tied to open-source software—free programs written by volunteers who collaborate online—are boasting double-digit growth. Sales at Red Hat, the world’s biggest independent open-source firm with annual revenues of $653m, grew by 18% year-on-year in the first quarter.

One common misconception about open source software is that it can be changed by anyone and is less secure; however, most open source is strictly governed. For example, the Apache Software Foundation has tight configuration management controls for developers. Its products are so good that most major software vendors include some Apache software in their products including Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and Sun.

The UK's budget is looming and the public sector is charged with increasing spending on front line services by 4% while budgets go up 2%. Free and open source software is a way of saving millions of pounds in licensing fees and delivering often better products, this article argues.

With the world economy in shambles many businesses are already battening down the hatches expecting rough seas ahead. IT budgets will shrink along with all other budgets, and maybe even more than other budgets.

When budgets are cut and open networks still need securing, it may be helpful to try open source security tools as a sufficient and affordable alternative to pricey commercial products.

Global Server Load Balancing is the automatic routing of users to the nearest / fastest server to them based on their source IP. Typically a GSLB solution requires expensive application switches at each site, and additional software licenses that run into the thousands of dollars.

Even as Microsoft has slipped into the mainstream of open source by embedding it in its products and adopting open-source strategies for services such as customer relationship management, it continues its subversive fight against Linux.

According to a talk by Benchmark Capital's Rob Bearden at this week's Open Source Business Conference (OSBC), the nature of open source business models are changing. He says open source companies should strive to become the "enterprise standard" in their market space in order to effectively monetize their commodities.

I was surprised to read in a tech journal that some IT managers are considering an open source Linux operating system for their computers and workstations. Systems are aging, budgets are tight in this economy, and Linux is, well, free.