From the CIOs-Listen-Up dept.:
The enterprise software business is changing dramatically and tomorrow's industry will look very different to today's. The converging impacts of slowing growth, competitive pressures, and more demanding customers will cause a splintering of today's monolithic industry offerings -- and in a surprising turn of events, the software industry of the future will look much more like the open source software industry of today. But what will that mean for you, the software user?

Some of this pressure will be caused by open source itself. Obviously, if an inexpensive alternative is available, it's harder to charge premium prices for a good or service. I liken it to bottled water -- if you're dying of thirst in a desert, almost any price for water is acceptable. You'd pay a hundred dollars for a bottle of Perrier. If you're standing in your kitchen and water is freely available from your tap, though, there's a limit you'll pay for the convenience and putatively higher quality water available in a bottle. Open source has the effect of serving as the kitchen tap -- and putting a ceiling on the acceptable price for proprietary software.

...In other words, the software industry of the future will look a lot like the open source industry of today. Cheap (or free) software, but more responsibility for the user. Which is the second reason your future depends on open source. Your organization will increasingly need to do more research, make more vendor-independent decisions, and implement more community-shared systems. You need to start sharpening your open source skills if you want your organization ready for the software industry of the future.

CIO