The Future of Open Source 2012, a survey sponsored by North Bridge Venture Partners and Black Duck Software and conducted by the 451 Group, indicates that when it comes to IT trends like cloud, mobile, social and big data, open source is leading, not following – and adoption rates are following. In fact, over $675 million was invested in open source technologies in 2011.

The survey’s 700 respondents, drawn from a pool of “industry influencers” from within and without the open source vendor community.

Some key findings from the study include:

• More than 50 percent of software acquired over the next five years will be open source.
• 44 percent of respondents said that data management is the market segment most likely to be affected by open source software this year.
• 43 percent say that project maturity is the most important factor when picking an open source application.
• Quality of open source software is one of the top reasons it’s tapped for enterprise adoption.

On the other hand, there are significant barriers to open source software adoption, as the survey suggests that unfamiliarity with and an internal skills gap for open source solutions are still holding back adoption. That’s a far more addressable concern than the quality of the code, which, as the study’s conclusion suggests, has gone from a barrier to a major reason for adoption in and of itself.

Reality check time: Any time a survey is sponsored by a party with a vested interest, it’s extremely important to take it with a grain of salt. But a gut check confirms the study’s central hypothesis, if not the numbers: Apache Hadoop and its attendent ecosystem is currently enjoying a tenure as the de facto implementation of MapReduce for handling big data; the OpenStack cloud computing platform is the fastest-growing open source project in the history of the concept; Google Android is currently the only truly viable alternative to Apple iOS in the mobile space.

All the same, open source still faces a significant challenge from the proprietary incumbents – EMC and IBM are both making major plays in the converged infrastructure space, fighting to retain cloud service provider customers. It’s up to open source-friendly vendors like Rackspace Hosting, Red Hat or Canonical to promote the virtues of open source standards.