Ten years ago, open source advocates faced an uphill battle    when they tried to implement free software in an organization,    while proprietary vendors such as Microsoft spoke out publicly    and fiercely against it. Barriers to implementation included    worries about security, support, warranties and indemnities, and    concerns that the quality of software that was freely available    would be inferior to that produced on a commercial basis and    licensed for a fee.  
    A decade later, the landscape has changed considerably. The    open source model is well-established and far better    understood, and a huge proportion of companies use open source    software somewhere in their IT operations.  
    [ Tips:How to Run Your Small Business With Free Open    Source Software]  
    One reason is that many of the concerns have disappeared. A    recent Future of Open Source Survey found that 72    percent of respondents use open source software because they    believe it provides better security than proprietary    alternatives, and 80 percent believe it offers better quality    than proprietary software.  
    These survey findings correspond with the day-to-day experience    of IT professionals such as Mark Winiberg, whose company,    Charter Software, offers open source deployment    and training. "Ten years ago, open source software was a hard    sell," he says. "These days, I am simply not seeing the same    level of opposition to it."  
    Procurement Policies Often Biased Against Open    Source  
    That's not to say that barriers to open source software have    disappeared completely. There's evidence, for example, that    many organizations' software procurement policies are still    designed for a world of proprietary software and therefore make    open source solutions problematic to use.  
    Examples of this are policies dictating that any prospective    vendor's financial figures be scrutinized, and that the vendor    must have been in business for three years. How do you    scrutinize the financials of an open source project?  
    Clearly, this type of policy needs updating to reflect the    reality of the open source world and to prevent open source    software from being effectively ruled out, says Simon Phipps,    the president of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), a nonprofit that    advocates open source software.  
    [ Feature:10 Reasons Open Source Is Eating the    World]  
Read the rest here:
How to Overcome Hidden Barriers to Open Source Adoption