According to a recent IDC study, businesses in Australia, China, India and Korea reported that 25 percent to 70 percent of their software assets are based on open source. Conducted by IDC between February and March this year, the study involved top executives from about 1,000 companies of all sizes.

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Wilvin Chee, research director with IDC's Asia-Pacific software research group, said: "Businesses are using a variety of open source software, ranging from infrastructure software and storage to enterprise applications such as CRM (customer relationship management) and ERM (enterprise resource management)."

Chee said most organizations in the Asia-Pacific region are opting for open source software because they perceive it to offer better protection against security breaches, a view which the analyst said is "justified to some extent".

The open source development process means software can be developed in collaboration with programmers and end users who want to improve software for its own sake, rather than to seek commercial objectives, he said.

"Because of this non-association with commercial purposes, open source software is not bound by time-to-market deadlines," Chee explained. "And there is no pressure from end users to adopt it, because people are always looking forward to newer versions of commercial software."

Better vendor support from open source companies, compared to proprietary software providers, is another reason for companies to adopt open source. This is because support services underpin the business model of open source companies, which are "a little more forthcoming in providing the relevant support", Chee said.

He added: "They are also able to come up with less complex support structures for open source users."

Noting another key difference, Chee said that when it comes to proprietary software, there is a tendency for companies to "buy something more than what they really need".

Vista sparks interest
Maarten Koster, president of Novell Asia-Pacific, said that the release of Windows Vista has given companies in less-developed markets a reason to consider open source alternatives.

Noting that organizations face the decision of Vista hardware investments, Koster said: "If I don't need full functionality on the desktop, maybe I'll go open source.

"If you want to roll out a low-cost infrastructure in India and China, open source is definitely the way to go," he added.

However, while open source software may be perceived to be cheaper because there are no upfront licensing costs involved in software acquisition, Chee said, the total cost of ownership (TCO) of open source software varies.

"Both proprietary and open source vendors will provide their own attractive TCO propositions," he said.

"What's critical to businesses is services support, regardless of the kind of software they're using," Chee added. "Businesses want to ensure that they really know how to use the software, especially when they have software from multiple vendors."

Yap Boon Leong, business development director of Resolvo Systems, a Singapore-based open source software developer with operations in Cambodia, noted that open source is appealing in emerging markets because businesses there tend to be very price-sensitive.

"In emerging markets, businesses want to have the lowest TCO possible," Yap said, adding that Resolvo offers a utility pricing model in Cambodia for its open source-based products such as inventory control and sales force automation. Resolvo also provides support and deployment services for companies that want to keep their software and data on their own servers.

Regardless of software delivery or development models, Chee noted, businesses in the Asia-Pacific region are a practical bunch. "It doesn't matter if software is open source or proprietary, as long as it can meet their requirements," he said.