"CIOs are turning to open source to drive digital innovation" 

Prashant Gupta, Head of Solutions, Verizon Enterprise Solutions, India

The growth of open source technology has been phenomenal in the country. India is a huge contributor and developer of the open source technology. Today, multiple organizations in India have adopted and are in the process of adopting the open source technology to build their businesses.The growth rate of open source is expected to increase in the coming years as new advancements are introduced in the technology.

The Digital India initiative by the Government of India urges everyone to adopt open standards, promote open source, and open technologies. This was supported by GOI policy on open source.  Open source policy align well with the Digital India Program, the program seeks to prepare India for a knowledge economy? with 3 broad areas of focus :
o   Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen

o   Governance & Services on Demand

o   Digital Empowerment of Citizens

Governments using open source software, as a key component of 'digital agenda' initiatives that include open standards and open data policies, to enhance citizen engagement. The formal adoption and use of open source is the largest in the government organizations in the country. By leveraging the open source technology for effective governance, the Government of India is setting a successful example. As a result, CIOs are turning to open source to drive digital innovation to support various business processes with a new angle. Being a substitute for an expensive solution, open source is preferred by SMBs, which in turn, has apositive impact on their businesses. Hence, a mass adoption of the open source technology can impact the economy of a developing country such as India.

The biggest benefit that Open source drives is innovation, it provides flexibility in terms of vendor lock-ins and feature customization. Another benefit is the faster time to market. More than 40 + governments globally have policies supporting this initiative  the Indian govt has even developed BOSS (Bharat Operating System Solutions), which is a Linux-based operating system, There are still more initiatives required on the applications and platforms front.

The market for open source has expanded considerably after the government started utilizing and promoting the technology. Open Source was one of the top Enterprise IT Trends to watch in 2017. From Cloud computing to Software Defined Networks, Web and Application servers, Big Data, Analytics and Automationopen source made a significant place. Many studies clearly indicated that a vast majority of organisationshave adopted open source in one way or another. We see even  SMBs embracing open source technology and sectors such as banking, manufacturing, software developmentand business process have bet big on open source and successfully deployed solutions.

The most important challenge that organizations face in the adoption of the open source technology is the lack of skill availability. Other challenges include lack of dedicated vendor support, software quality and information security. This can be addressed by laying down a robust policy framework to support adoption. Make in INDIA can also drive solutions developed on an open source  platform.With the growth of open source in the Indianmarket, better training and more participation will result in setting a mark in the global open source market.