Alfresco Software reported record revenues today, providing a signal that open-source technologies are a top choice for the enterprise as the economy moves out of the recession and cloud computing becomes more prevalent.
Alfresco reported both record fourth quarter earnings and record revenues for 2009. Growth is up 61% compared to last year. We look at these results with a grain of salt but in Alfresco’s case it increased its staff 29 percent and also added 300 customer, including companies such as Cisco, Merck and the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In an interview today, Alfresco’s Ian Howell said the growth is coming from companies making the switch from document management platforms. Most of these document management companies have been acquired. And since most of those acquisitions, the market has changed. Open-source content management systems and Sharepoint have disrupted the market, providing a web oriented alternative to document-based, enterprise applications.
The customer is also adapting to an open-source culture. Before, a customer would ask: Do i get source code? Do you support it or do I have to go the forums? Do you scale in an enterprise?
Now, customers ask; How do I roll out? Do you offer 24/7 customer support?
The infrastructure is there. The ISV market and partner networks for open-source companies is growing as are content applications for open-source enterprise technologies. Service organizations are a core part of the open-source ecosytsem.
Further, how can proprietary technology have any role in a cloud environment? It’s the economics that drive open-source adoption in the cloud. That factor alone is drawing the enterprise to open-source.
And that means a bright future for open-source enterprise technologies from companies like Alfresco.
