This IDC study presents the worldwide open source services forecast for 2008–2012 and includes a segmentation of the open source service opportunity in the United States. This study updates the assumptions related to the forecast, summarizes market trends, and analyzes what has changed in the market since last year's forecast. In addition, this study provides recommendations for service firms competing in the open source services market.

"The open source services opportunity is growing almost three times faster than the overall IT services industry," says Gard Little, program manager, Emerging Services Opportunities. "The size of the open source services market is small today, but customers, product and service providers, and investors are all exploiting the opportunities around open source."