Survey: Enterprises Struggle to Manage Open Source Code Use

Most enterprises either don't have policies related to open source code or those policies are not enforced. 

by DevX Staff

Apr 30, 2013

A new survey of 3,500 data architects and developers conducted by Sonatype highlights the difficulty of managing open source code used for enterprise application development.  Among those surveyed, 57 percent said their organizations "lack any policy governing open-source usage."  This despite the fact that 80 percent of a typical Java application is assembled from open source components. 

When asked whether they need approval to use open source code in their projects, only 24% said, "We're completely locked down: We can only use approved components."  By contrast, 44% said, "Yes, we have some corporate standards, but they aren't enforced," and another 32% answered, "There are no standards.  Each developer of team chooses the components that are the best for their project."