If you need further proof that open-source applications are ready for prime time, take today's news from open-source business intelligence company Jaspersoft, which announced that British Telecom is using its business intelligence suite to support more than 8 million voice mail subscribers.
BT and Unisys, a longtime Jaspersoft partner, say they chose Jaspersoft for its modular design, which reduces maintenance and cost and gives them customization abilities that improve capacity planning.
The deal with BT also represents how important a solid channel strategy is for open-source software companies.
Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile has in the past mentioned that the BI market is heavily influenced by a few technical aspects, including SOA/Web services (and overall componentized design), in-memory analytics, integrated search, and the use of rich media services to provide more compelling (Web-based) user experiences.
The other obvious factor in the shift to open-source BI (and open source in general) is the economics behind the applications and ongoing operations. And perhaps more important is the control--both on-premise and online. As consultant Carlo Daffara noted recently, "the critical aspect is being able to assess this control and weight if the lack of control is compensated by the features you get (which is reasonable) or what kind of risk you are accepting in exchange."
In conversation earlier today, Gentile further asserted, "open-source software is both augmenting and displacing aged, proprietary solutions across industries and at the largest companies. British Telecom is just one example of a company that has realized traditional, proprietary software is just too expensive and too complex. The most aggressive companies figured this out long ago. But now, with heightened economic pressures and the feature maturity of open source, the secret is out and the choice is clear."
There was a time when people would debate whether or not open-source software was reliable enough to support a small office. Those days are long gone. The down economy and maturity of open source are the perfect storm for major disruption.
In a new study on open-source adoption in the business intelligence (BI) market, it's becoming clear that both the benefits and shortcomings of open source software are nearly universal across all technology segments.
According to the study by Third Nature (sponsored by Jaspersoft and Infobright), "the top reason for adopting is still cost savings, although reduced vendor dependence and ease of integration were close to the same level. The limiting of vendor technology lock‐in and freedom from deployment restrictions were key elements of reducing vendor dependence. Some companies used open source deployments as a means of keeping their incumbent vendors honest."
The statement above is hardly unique to BI, but is perhaps germane if only because BI solutions have for so long been hugely expensive and proprietary. In past discussions with Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile, he has stated that BI is the least agile piece of the enterprise puzzle. Open source BI solutions mean that customers can take matters into their own hands.
The study also makes some recommendations on evaluating BI and data warehousing tools, that again are relevant for any open source product.
- Don't focus solely on cost savings.
- Make open source the default option
- Plan to augment, not replace, existing software with open source.
- Consider developing open source policies.
- Evaluate open source like any other software.
In the end, software needs to solve business problems. The adoption of open source gives users more alternatives to address their issues, be it cost reduction, increased business agility or just a new way to manage their data.
Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.
One of the most difficult aspects of cloud computing is dealing with the integration of various applications that run between your enterprise and a cloud provider or data center. Application integration is arguably the biggest challenge to enterprises attempting to adopt cloud principles.
To that end, Jaspersoft, Talend, RightScale, and Vertica have teamed up to offer a joint solution stack that delivers complete Business Intelligence (BI) in the cloud.
Business intelligence has been the No. 1 technology spend for the last three years running, according to reseach firm Gartner. And, despite the the recession, Madan Sheina from Ovum has called BI a "recession proof technology." But nothing lasts forever and as with any other enterprise technology, BI can just easily feel the pain of budget cuts.
I spoke with Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile about the announcement to get some perspective on why this is just the beginning of full application stacks in the cloud.
The dirty secret about enterprise software is: it sucks. It's really hard to use and often requires additional resources for training and ongoing maintenance. This is particularly the case with proprietary software.
What our cloud BI solution will bring is an added layer of agility for businesses that want some level of analytics, but who don't want to wait months or dedicate resources to evaluating and deploying a BI solution.
If you want to start a new project, just fire it up. If you want to scale, we scale. If you're done with the project in a month or two, just stop--you haven't had to invest in significant software or hardware infrastructure costs.
BI is just one use case of how enterprise applications can cross borders. Realistically, not every application will (or necessarily should) go outside the firewall, but having the ability to do so brings about a wealth of new ways to add flexibility to your business.
Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.
Monday's rumor that on-demand business intelligence provider LucidEra was shutting down has turned out to be true.
I received a number of pitches from competitors about why their solution is better, cheaper, etc., and one particularly well thought-out e-mail from Brad Peters, CEO of Birst, another on-demand BI provider. I've pasted the e-mail below with permission and it will end up on their blog sooner or later.
My understanding is that while LucidEra's shutdown is unfortunate and a bit of a drag for customers, there are multiple providers that customers can easily switch to and that LucidEra are being helpful with the data transference.
LucidEra, right and wrong
Brad Peters, CEO, BirstIt's always unfortunate to see a fellow startup shut its doors, even when you compete with it, since strong competition validates an overall concept--in our case, on-demand business intelligence. The benefits are real. The value to customers is real. Unfortunately for LucidEra, their particular approach--specific applications, instead of general BI solutions--proved weak in the marketplace.
... Read moreAs information proliferates, so does the need to understand what it means. Business intelligence has long played a role in discerning customer behavior and defining how businesses define metrics.
But, BI is typically pretty boring (if not an oxymoron)--that is until you start applying the techniques and software to information that's interesting.
JasperSoft CEO Brian Gentile provided some insight into the opportunities available for upstart vendors to take advantage of consolidation as well as the "consumerization of information" -- where users expect to have their business info available just as they would any other internet-based data.
The consolidation of the largest BI vendors will continue to have a ripple effect on the market. Since Business Objects, Cognos, and Hyperion were acquired by SAP, IBM, and Oracle respectively, "we've seen meaningful opportunities open up for smaller, faster, and more modern BI software providers who fill specific niches of functionality, particularly where the largest players have been weak."
Key technology shifts have been in play for about the last two years and have begun to influence BI. Examples include SOA/web services (and overall componentized design), in-memory analytics, integrated search, and the use of rich media services to provide more compelling (web-based) user experiences. For BI tools and software, the question is "which vendors will be able to deliver a more modern, dynamic experience using these new technologies?"
With all this change, the "besieged CIO" is under increasing pressure and scrutiny. So, what's a CIO to do? Answer: "find capable, lower-cost alternatives in all technology categories."
This is where new development and delivery models will become even more popular, which benefits open source and software-as-a-service vendors because, in most cases, the up-front and on-going costs are just lower (especially in the case of open source).
But potentially the most important force to impact BI in the year ahead is what Gentile calls the "consumerization of information". This concept is based on the evolving workforce and its expectations for software, which will drastically transform software development and usage, including the enterprise software market.
The consumerization of information is based on the very real workforce demographic shift under way: as the aging workforce in the largest economies continues to retire (in the U.S., it's the baby boomer generation aka "The Olds") and more young workers (aka "The Youngs") enter and climb higher, we'll see a widening gap between the expected behavior of enterprise applications and their actual behavior.
Younger workers have grown up with computers and, by and large, the internet. Therefore, their expectations for how software systems should behave are vastly different from an older worker who has grown into computers and software during the course of his career.
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