With the economy in a state of turmoil and the number of redundancies on the rise, it is no wonder that everyone is inclined to give cautious predictions for professional services IT and web development in 2009. After all, who wants to be an optimist at the moment?

One of the predictions made recently in the annual Society for Computers and Law Predictions Review is by Kit Burden, Partner at DLA Piper. Kit suggested that the use of Open Source software will come increasingly into focus. He comments: “What will be interesting to track will be whether there is any change in tack by customers in the procurement and contracting process (i.e. to lighten the load in terms of the length of the process or the types of clauses being sought) in return for lower costs.”

In an economic drought, companies and firms alike are trying to cut back on costs wherever possible, which makes the use of open source, as a non-licensed option, an ever more compelling choice. But one of the main issues surrounding open source software is the question of ‘what happens when things go wrong?’

This is a particularly valid question when unsupported open source applications are used - a high-risk strategy in a business - but there is a growing range of commercially-supported open source applications that offer the best of both worlds. Take the mighty Sun Microsystems who have developed Open Office, a suite of applications to rival Microsoft’s Office suite. Commercial support is there if needed, but otherwise you can use the Open Office suite for free. Intendance’s principle content management system MySource Matrix offers similar advantages: the cost-benefits of no license fee to pay, but a dedicated support team there when needed.

So good can come out of bad: if the downturn compels firms and companies to reassess their use of technology, those that survive could emerge leaner and fitter than before. This is grounds for optimism, and a worthwhile reason not to fear the future.

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