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JasperSoft Launches It's Next Generation of BI Tools
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This 5 page white paper discusses the key issues with ETL tools today, and how an "E-LT" architecture combined with a "business-rules-driven" approach is better. "E-LT" eliminates the need for dedicated ETL servers, and instead, leverages the power of the target RDBMS engine to perform compute-intensive transformations. "Business-rules-driven" development enables developers to describe end-to-end transformation and data quality rules in terms that are the most intuitive and easiest to maintain. The net result is better developer productivity, better performance and lower costs.
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Summary
Business intelligence (BI) technology has become a critical component of many decision-making and business processes. But BI technology is not always simple to access and to integrate with other applications and systems, which can make it difficult for IT staff and independent developers to deploy in business environments. Ventana Research believes JasperSoft’s recently released version 2 of Business Intelligence Suite, its open source-based BI technology, goes a long way toward overcoming those barriers. With enterprise packaging, licensing, services and new features, including data integration capabilities, JasperSoft Business Intelligence Suite version 2 is ready for large-scale deployments. Cost-conscious organizations looking for BI technology that is easy to embed in an open source systems stack should find this new release a good option. Ventana Research asserts that open source BI software that can scale and deploy easily is ready for enterprise use.
Assessment
Open source-based BI technology has matured into a legitimate alternative to many commercial BI tools. Our research in late 2005 validated this fact, and since that time we have seen the number of deployments at the enterprise level grow significantly. JasperSoft is a leading vendor of open source BI technology, with more than eight years of experience. Known initially for JasperReports, its reporting tool, it has expanded its BI portfolio in the last couple of years. Today, it has deployments around the world in midsize and large organizations that have strict development requirements. JasperSoft’s approach to embedding BI into other applications and systems differentiates it from competitors.
With version 2, JasperSoft now offers enterprise editions and a packaged suite available by an annual license subscription that includes support and service options. The BI suite includes JasperServer, JasperReports (available in both Developer and Professional versions), JasperAnalysis and JasperETL. The suite supports Java, PHP and C or C++ interfaces to support a variety of development requirements. Organizations that are looking for a flexible development platform will appreciate what JasperSoft has provided.
JasperServer provides the enterprise interface for managing reporting using either AJAX or DHTML. It works with JasperReports, which provides interactive reporting, scheduling, distribution and drag-and-drop capabilities. In version 2, the enhanced ad-hoc reporting capabilities support cross-tabs and non-SQL data sources. JasperAnalysis, in conjunction with JPivot, provides the drill-in and drill-out to detail, pivot and analysis capabilities users expect from enterprise BI suites. JasperAnalysis’ schema builder simplifies analytic server deployments, using a logical metadata model that businesses will find easy to understand. The JasperSoft BI products are integrated with JasperServer to support large-scale centralized deployments. JasperETL, from Talend, provides open source-based data integration capabilities for the enterprise. Another product, JasperStudio, provides the ability to define and produce formatted reports.
JasperSoft also provides a set of enterprise options through JasperForge, its extended version of SourceForge. It allows the community of JasperSoft users and developers to contribute and to download members’ own additions to JasperSoft’s BI technology. With more than 160 JasperSoft projects out there, the number of community additions to the product line is growing exponentially. One of the more interesting of these is JasperBabylon, which allows users to contribute to linguistic localization beyond that provided in the English, French, German, Italian and Japanese standard releases. Version 2 also supports more operating systems and repository databases.
Market Impact
Although the market for stand-alone BI products has been consolidating – Oracle’s recent acquisition of Hyperion being just one example – the market for BI is expanding. BI is now a mission-critical technology in organizations of all sizes, and developers still need technology options that allow them to embed BI as part of other applications and systems. Besides Jinfonet, a provider of Java-based BI tools that are not open source, developers have the option of open source BI. JasperSoft and its open source competitors Pentaho and Spago, and the BIRT project that Actuate supports, are the most likely alternative vendors of this sort. More traditional commercial BI products do not have the advantage of community contributions and lower costs. In addition, the opportunity to bundle open source BI into hardware appliances, operating systems, application servers and other applications grows weekly. JasperSoft is taking advantage of this through integration with salesforce.com and SugarCRM, open source-based customer relationship management (CRM) software that is outpacing most of the traditional BI providers. Although it will continue to lean on its JasperReports product, JasperSoft now has a robust, full-scale BI suite with extraction, transformation and loading (ETL), online analytical processing (OLAP) and other capabilities that buyers expect from an enterprise-class BI provider.
Recommendation
JasperSoft BI Suite version 2 is a step forward for the company and the open source BI industry. With significant advances in enterprise capabilities, packaging, licensing and global deployments, JasperSoft is challenging the conventional wisdom of BI choices. With its new version, the company now offers an open source-based product line with capabilities usually only found in offerings from larger, commercial BI providers. Organizations looking for a BI strategy that can align with developers’ needs and offer a cost-effective path for broader deployments should evaluate JasperSoft. Ventana Research believes open source BI is not a fad but a viable option in the enterprise that is suited for traditional application development organizations.About the Author Mark is responsible for the overall direction of Ventana Research, and drives the global performance management research agenda, which covers both business and technology areas. He researches the specific areas of Workforce Performance Management and Business Process Management. He is also the Director of the Intelligent Business Performance Management Conference and the community editor of IntelligentBPM.com, the industry's first independent forum for information, news, and discussion about business performance management. An industry veteran with more than 17 years of industry experience in business and technology, before founding Ventana Research, Mark worked at companies including SAP, META Group, Oracle and IRI Software. Mark can be contacted at .
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Oracle #1 in Business Analytics According to IDC Research
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The Business Intelligence Search Engine has all the answers.
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Find all you need on The Business Intelligence Search Engine.
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