nextanalytics blog

Seth Grimes published an article about the potential growth of four BI companies. 

“That core software components are free makes open source attractive to users as well as systems integrators and independent software vendors that sell products and services built on open source BI components.” 

Take note: People at least start out expecting products which advertise as Open Source to be free.

The companies he wrote about leverage the words "open source" in their marketing albeit with the word "Commercial" associated with "Open Source". 

I am worried that, to someone who's not "in the know," this distinction is too subtle.  I am thinking of the general press (ie. not BI press) and customers who are new to BI, etc etc. 

They latch onto the words "Open Source," we all know that. They think it's all one and the same, they're talking about True Open Source.

I would worry that might feel as if a bait-and-switch occurred once they learned what's really going on.  To varying degrees, this will eventually detract from the brand and philosophy of "Open Source" (per the OSI definition).  In essence, this is what Roberto Gallopini joked about when he read one of our early days press releases.    BTW, that particular press release was a mistake, some of the wording about Open Source got out of our control and published before we could correct it -- Roberto was quite right to tease us about it :).

Seth said:

 “Commercial open source BI vendors, notably Pentaho and JasperSoft, offer these components in free community editions with open source licenses, and also packaged with non-open source extensions in paid, supported, indemnified editions.

"It's hard to get going without help from the vendor, and anytime I need to upgrade, I get a little bit nervous. (from Seth's article, a quote by Venkat Gaddipati, CTO at online marketplace OnForce)"

“Beyond Compliance harnesses the Palo OLAP Server on the back end and the non-open source Palo Worksheet Server for report distribution.”

To me, these quotes imply that a customer needs closed software to find it useful.   Are these companies really Open Source vendors? I see what I see.   Form your own opinion.

In a separate article by Stephen Swoyer, Vincent Pineau, GM Talend Americas, said:

"We definitely do not feel that open source should equate to free. Yes, we are lower [in price] than our competitors, but we also do not want people to think that cheap in price or cheap in features. We believe that the right features are what people should focus on," Pineau says

Ok, then, we have had a project up at Codeplex for a long time now.  It is true open source.  I'd really prefer you pay for the commercial one (at this site).  Can we now call ourselves Commercial Open Source? Is that now an acceptable term? 

Premise-Promise of Open Source

Seth said “For most open source BI adopters, however, the solution search starts with cost.” 

Folks, from my experience, people seeking Open Source want a FREE, totally free, experience.  They want to pay nothing. Period.

This isn't the case with Commercial Open Source vendors. Customers end up paying $30,000.  And they might spend a month or two of expensive IT time trying to get it working before they resort to these Commercial Open Source vendors. 

Remember, this is something they originally thought would get free.  $30,000+ and several months of work is not free.  One might even argue that "Commercial Open Source" is not in-expensive.

Sometimes it's better to pay and get documentation, support, and quality control. IMO, you will end up spending less.

Our own philosophy is that the stuff you need to be open-source, is. 

For example, our User Interface and programmatic interfaces are all Open Source. Supported, customizable Open Source.

Therefore, one shouldn't divide the BI world into two categories.  There are more than the four "commercial open source vendors" and the monolithic mainstream BI vendors who were mentioned. 

In fact, there are plenty of other vendors who can fulfill BI needs very satisfactorily for less cost than Pentaho and Jaspersoft.

Those are good companies. I know some of the founders and they are great people. I can't quite comment on their product quality since Open Source by its nature can easily have random bugs injected and no one is accountable.  

My Point is, if you're shopping for Commercial Open Source, then also open your minds to other vendors too.  The TCO will be about the same and you might have a better experience. Not everyone charges as much as the big guys, although, I wish :)  ...