Framework for Identification of Critical Factors for Open Source Software Adoption Decision in Mission-Critical IT Infrastructure Services

Abstract

Mission-critical IT systems are utilizing closed source software (CSS) mainly due to reasons related to “quality assurance” and “continued support” despite much better benefits of using Open Source Software (OSS). OSS permits users to access source code for assessment, amendment, and redistribution, which offers low dependency on a vendor without license or maintenance cost. This paper investigates and analyzes OSS adoption factors for “critical IT infrastructure” by conducting a comprehensive review of the relevant literature. Furthermore, this paper proposes a framework that can help the critical IT industry to have increased confidence in OSS. The proposed framework utilizes the organizing logic of the Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) framework, recommends factors that were recognized by critically scrutinizing the studies found in the available literature. To validate the framework, a questionnaire-based survey was conducted targeting IT experts in critical sectors. The data integrity of survey results was analyzed using Cronbach's alpha. Framework factors were validated statistically using one sample T-test. The outcome indicated that the factors were statistically significant as the p-value was less than 0.05 for all the factors.