Open-source business intelligence (BI) tools are becoming a mainstream deployment option for all kinds of BI usage, according to Gartner.
Gartner analysts said that while functionality is not yet on par with large commercial platforms and is still rarely seen as an enterprisewide BI standard, open-source BI tool deployment is growing solidly.
The average size deal for an open-source BI contract remains approximately $30,000 for a yearly subscription, but some contracts repeatedly exceed $500,000 for a multiyear support subscription, which is the same as many commercial counterparts.
Andreas Bitterer, research vice president at Gartner, said: “Open source BI has seen an interesting adoption pattern over the last few years. Hardly any organisation looked at open-source BI until 2004, let alone deployed it to a significant number of users, but this submarket had developed nicely, having developed consistent growth rates over the last few years.”
Gartner said that open-source BI adoption is more often seen in price-conscious midsize companies, and in government and the public sector, healthcare or manufacturing firms.
A large portion of the growth in open-source adoption is coming from the vendors’ original equipment manufacturer business, which cannot be properly sized, as many independent software vendors simply use the downloadable version of the open-source BI product and add it as additional functionality in their own applications, the research firm said.
In addition, system integrators have started to build practices around open-source technology, and they are also implementing BI platforms (mostly reports and dashboards) as part of the contracted service.
Mr Bitterer added, “As you might imagine, the increasing open-source traction has not gone unnoticed by the commercial vendors. While often dismissed as being no competition, even the large established BI vendors have come up with counter measures to address the challenges from the lower-cost competitors.”
