Open Source: The Potential of BI For the Masses

  Business Intelligence   Strategy  

Unless you've been living in complete isolation for the last few years, you have undoubtedly heard about LINUX and the open source movement. While the buzz around open source has been significant in the developer community, adoption of open source technologies has been significant but measured.

Larger companies don't know what to do with open source due to a new operational model for software licensing and potential legal issues, and smaller ones simply don't have the expertise to support open source implementations over Microsoft.

No company has emerged to provide the support and packaging around open source software at an enterprise level. RedHat and SUSE have focused on expanding support for the LINUX operating system, while little has been done to package complementary software that an enterprise would need (e.g. database, application server, etc.).

While these issues are common in the adoption curve of a new technology paradigm, open source has real promise. While I would hesitate to venture into high-end enterprise solutions utilizing open source software right now, there is a strong value proposition associated with open source for smaller to mid-size applications where scalability needs are limited. This presents tremendous opportunities for open source adoption, especially amongst small and mid-size companies and in non-mission …

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