Companies often have no one to guide them through some of the unique aspects of the open-source world, "so they burn up an awful lot of internal resources with steering committees" and other reviews, Goulde said. Traditional IT consulting companies can help with such planning, but in OpenLogic's case, the help will come from a company already integrally involved in the open-source community, he said.

"This is a good thing, having someone close to the [open-source] projects," Goulde said. "My guess is that people will be looking to have these services in a more cost-effective way. I think there's a good opportunity for it. The need for it ... meets where a lot of mainstream companies are today."