LF Networking, the facilitator of collaboration and operational excellence across open source networking projects, has officially published the results from its recent Linux Foundation Research survey on Open Source and Networking, a survey which was designed to assess open source adoption within the networking industry.
Going by the available details, LF’s survey discovered that open source is extremely critical for innovating at scale. You see, more than 92% of surveyed respondents said open source projects are important to the future of their organization, whereas on the other hand, 94% of organizations see open source foundation’s support of projects as important, very important, or extremely important.
Alongside that, an estimated 83% respondents were also found to deem business value derived from OSS as high or very high.
“As we’ve seen in other industries, this research confirms that open source is the driving force behind networking innovation, particularly as organizations accelerate their transition to cloud native architectures and AI-driven automation. The overwhelming networking industry support for open source projects—whether in Open RAN, domain-specific AI, or cloud native networking—underscores its critical role in ensuring scalability, security, and interoperability in an increasingly software-defined world,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT at the Linux Foundation.
Next up, LF’s exercise would go on to reveal how the wider shift towards cloud native networking is nearing market penetration. This it concluded after 73% of organizations revealed that they are already integrating the technology into their workloads.
As for why they are doing so, the answer is provided by an assortment of benefits which include automation, orchestration, scalability, and resilience. Having referred to the benefits, we must also touch upon the challenges that continue to plague the technology. These challenges include primary barriers like skills gap (38%), security and compliance concerns (37%), as well as licensing and legal risks (35%).
Another detail worth a mention here is rooted in the consensus’ demand for open source to be the ultimate foundation for AI development, with 74% of respondents expressing this opinion. Markedly enough, the survey also found that top reasons for accelerating networking AI adoption include the availability of high quality datasets (56%) and frameworks for AI application development (29%).
Talk about leading AI applications, they include network automation & orchestration (57%), security & threat detection (50%), and predictive maintenance (41%).
Apart from that, LF’s survey further tips OpenRAN for explosive growth. You see, OpenRAN functions are currently modest at single-digit deployment, but the stated number is predicted to increase 200% in 2025 and increase 100% from the beginning of 2026 to the end of 2027.
Among other things, we ought to mention how these results tread up a long distance to validate LF Networking’s mission of advancing open source networking, fostering collaboration, and driving innovation in automation, cloud-native networking, and AI-driven network solutions. For better understanding, the company has already deployed several projects in this discipline, including Anuket/Thoth, 5G Super Blueprints, Nephio, and the Cloud Native Telco Initiative.
Beyond that, LF has also made substantial advances to develop domain-specific AI solutions.
“These findings demonstrate that open source networking and domain-specific AI-driven automation are no longer optional—they are essential for innovation, scalability, and security,” said Joshipura. “LF Networking projects and initiatives are working across the stack to both provide the needed foundation for digital transformation while also addressing current gaps. With strong industry backing, open source will continue to redefine networking’s future, addressing both technical and business challenges.”
