Open source software, and particularly Linux, is becoming a fundamental aspect of services portfolios for IBM Global Services, HP Services, Unisys, Novell and other major services providers.

According to a newly published IDC study, open source is moving up the investment agenda of companies worldwide, reflecting its growing acceptance in the enterprise.
Services providers, mostly the services arms of technology companies, are formalising support, training and certification services to encourage the adoption of open source, and principally Linux, in their products.

As open source software goes mainstream, IDC suggested that services vendors must further develop open source capabilities in order to meet clients' needs and attract new customers.

"A more widespread adoption of Linux and open source software is encouraged by the increasing availability of a much stronger set of external support, training, consulting and implementation services," said Sophie Mayo, a director for IDC's Worldwide Services.

"There is no longer any doubt that enterprises are trying to take advantage of the quality, flexibility and licence cost savings that open source software offers.

"However, they have to take into consideration integration, maintenance and support costs while deploying and managing their open source infrastructure.

"As the adoption increases, services providers are working to become their clients' single point of contact for all of their open source initiatives.

"They are also creating and supporting more refined offerings, including pre-integrated stacks of open source or mixed-source components."

The analyst firm said that open source will become "business as usual" in two to three years, and that service providers need to act today and create direct open source services offerings and embed open source into solutions.