What Does Open-Source Adoption Change?

Companies looking to bring open-source software into the enterprise surely expect some things to change. There’s a sense of, well, personal responsibility. If you don’t like the way a feature works, you can’t blame a vendor and tacitly decide to wait for the next version. The company can just change the software itself… which means it has to free up resources to do so, which means it’s got to be responsible for its own decisions. That’s not necessarily better or worse than working with proprietary solutions; it’s just different.

The folks in this discussion have watched companies deal with this migration before. You’ve seen it happen smoothly and you’ve seen it generate politics and friction. What does it take for IT to bring open source into the enterprise? What requirements must be met? Which standards must be adhered to?