Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. A question that I get a lot is, “Why would you create an open-source business?” That ...

Since its inception in 1998, open source has become the de-facto standard for software development and proven itself as a viable business model.

The right approach to open source can be a great revenue model for the software provider — my company did it and we've been profitable since day one.

The implications of this evolution are that open-source software companies now have the opportunity to become the dominant business model for software infrastructure.

Open source software may provide a cost-effective approach to building business applications, as well as ensuring transparency.

One such industry, where external enterprises often help drive business architecture by deploying open-source software and technology, is energy and utilities—an ever-evolving and volatile ...

Open-source software allows anyone to modify, enhance, or view the source code behind it. It can encourage collaboration in development.