Large companies are increasingly using open source software to conduct pilots, according to Deloitte consultant Mark Lillie.

I met up with Mark today, who is a consultant in Deloitte’s technology group. We were talking about the IT market in general and some trends.

One trend he mentioned is that Deloitte clients, which are large corporates, are increasingly demanding open source software to use on pilot projects. It reduces the cost of running pilots because open source is free. “Creating something at low cost,” he says.

If IT departments use open source to try things out they do not have to ask for any budget. They can then go get the funds when they have a version of whatever it is they are trying to build.

Why don’t these big companies use open source for the finished products you may ask.

Well this is because these companies have commercial agreements with major suppliers and remember nobody ever got sacked for buying IBM.

There is also the strange problem of senior executives thinking that if the software is free it can’t be any good.