Analyst and fellow blogger Joe McKendrick beat me to the punch on the interesting findings from a recent Unisys-sponsored survey by Forrester Research on open source use in enterprises. The bits on SOA (service-oriented architecture) were particularly revealing, and add more grist to the mill of evidence building around the compelling economics that bind open source products and SOA activities.

"Seventy-one percent of 400 executives viewed open source software as 'important' or 'very important' for consolidating IT infrastructure " he says. "In addition, 57 percent of respondents characterized open source as important or very important for facilitating the migration to a SOA. At the core of these responses is SOA's ability to extend the life of legacy applications. Forrester also said that 78 percent of respondents were favorably disposed toward open source software because of its open standards, which is a major factor driving their view of its value for SOA next-generation enterprise architectures."