JasperIntelligence is a road map for the development of an end-to-end BI platform, said Paul Doscher, CEO of San Francisco-based JasperSoft, which up to now has focused narrowly on the embedded Java reporting market.

The framework will allow JasperSoft to expand on its core reporting capabilities in several directions, providing a blueprint for the development of three interoperable open source BI products – JasperServer, JasperAnalytics, and a to-be-named extract, transform and load (ETL) tool.

JasperSoft released JasperServer recently to wrap production-grade reporting and enterprise deployment capabilities around its core JasperReports open source Java library and execution engine.

It basically provides a server-capability on top of the JasperReports code, adding things like report storage and administration functions like scheduling and end user security access control, Doscher said.

JasperServer dishes up HTML, PDF, Excel and Word reports that embed ad hoc and drill down capabilities.

The software is written in Java and supports PHP, Perl, Python and other scripting languages. It can be downloaded separately (as a standalone server or reporting engine) or integrated with other open source products like the MySQL database and Tomcat application server.

JasperServer is the first deliverable of our JasperIntelligence architecture. We released it in stealth mode, simply by putting it on the Sourceforge.net site, Doscher said, adding that the software has already been downloaded 3,000 times since its release.

JasperReports recently crossed the one million-download milestone, garnering over 60,000 downloads a month. It now boasts more than 10,000 deployments in 50 countries worldwide.

Doscher expects to release the next component of JasperAnalytics, which will provide OLAP capabilities, in the next month or so.

The ETL product will be rolled out later this year.

JasperAnalytics will be built on the Mondrian open source project. The company has already hired one the main contributors to this project and intends to beef-up classic OLAP cube functions like slice-and-dice, pivot and drill-down.

We intend to advance capabilities of the Mondrian project in an intense way to provide enterprise scalability, Doscher said.

Doscher said the company is working with open source ETL projects like Clover ETL and KETTLE, which is being developed by Kinetic Networks Inc.

We’ll decide later on this year if we want to acquire one of these or develop our own, he said.

Doscher said the drive to include ETL capabilities as part of its BI stack was driven by its close partnership with MySQL.

Notably, JasperSoft unveiled its new BI architecture at the MySQL user conference.

Joint MySQL customers have been telling us they would love to have operational data marts. But they’re increasingly frustrated by having to spend money on expensive ETL software like Informatica to effectively use a ‘free’ database to build these [data] marts, he said.

JasperSoft’s BI architecture comprises several elements including a server-based repository for uploading reports and OLAP definitions, common metadata services and a Web user interface for browsing the repository.

It’ll provide the glue for integrating our reporting, OLAP and ETL products, Doscher said.

JasperSoft follows a trend in open source BI to provide integrated LAMP-like stacks. LAMP is an integrated framework of open source Linux, Apache Web server, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/ Python software components tested to work together.

JasperSoft’s BI products are distributed under the GPL license but can also be bought with commercial, subscription-based support.

What JasperSoft is trying do to isn’t new in the open source BI world. Pentaho Corp, another open source start-up, is also assembling a set of interoperable reporting, OLAP analysis, data mining, workflow and ETL software that can be rapidly configured into a comprehensive BI system.

But Doscher believes that JasperSoft is different.

[Pentaho is] more focused on a monolithic offering that’s wrapped up as a single entity. We’re taking a more modular approach allowing customers to pick and choose components more freely, he said.

We’re also focused on supporting operational reporting at the small-to-medium sized business and departmental levels and are initially looking to integrate reporting and analytics into Java and non-Java business applications.

He said that Pentaho is aiming at the enterprise-level, which is more closely aligned to what Business Objects and Cognos do.

Attracting ISV and developer support is a key part of JasperSoft’s strategy. Doscher claims that a number of ISVs already converting from Crystal Reports to JasperReports to avoid paying royalty fees.

We’re designed our BI framework to be open to new components and also third-party development and are looking to attract as many ISVs as possible right now.

He said the company had made a conscious effort to make JasperServer Web services-enabled in order to make it attractive to partner development.

In this respect JasperSoft isn’t the only open source reporting vendor that’s courting developer eyeballs. Actuate Corp, which is driving the BIRT (Business Intelligence Reporting Tools), recently launched a commercial version 2 release of BIRT aimed squarely at Java and PHP report developers. The company recently struck a deal with Zend Technologies Inc to help drive BIRT into the PHP Web application development community.

Doscher believes there’s a pent-up demand in the market for open source as a cheaper alternative to traditional commercial BI software, particularly at the lower-end of the market.

The open source model is not like traditional enterprise software RFPs, he said. The beauty of this model is that it’s driven by self-selection. It flows frictionlessly and takes BI into places where is hasn’t gone before.

That said, JasperSoft also develops its own commercial offering called JasperDecisions, which is a closed source product.

Doscher acknowledges that many companies will have already have made significant investments in Cognos and Business Objects, and stressed that JasperSoft isn’t necessarily looking to replace them.

Industry research shows that commercial BI systems are only touching 15% of the enterprise because cost of deployment, bloated functionality and architectural issues make it impractical to do so, he said. It’s the other 85% that we’re going after.