This IDC study presents the worldwide open source services forecast for 2009–2013 and includes a segmentation of the open source services 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 seven times faster than the overall IT services opportunity," says Gard Little, program manager, Emerging Services Opportunities. "The size of the open source services market is small, but in the current economic recession, customers, product and service providers, and investors are all trying to exploit new opportunities involving open source."