Archive for January, 2008
Many bloggers, journalists and analysts have covered extensively the acquisition of MySQL. Today SearchSOA (part of TechTarget) posted this interesting piece that speculates on further acquisitions by Sun. Forrester analyst James Kobelius is quoted in there, saying “Sun may also be looking to acquire an ETL tool vendor, possibly the Talend open source technology.”
Of course, our official position is “we don’t comment on rumors about equity operations” - as it should be for any soundly managed startup. So I won’t comment on the rumor. I’ll just say that we are proud to be viewed as a potential acquisition target for Sun!
Tomorrow we’ll release a piece of interesting news about an important partnership. When we pre-briefed press and analysts about it these past couple days, they all asked if we were also considering equity links with this new partner. Again, I won’t comment on this - even if it’s not a rumor yet (wait until tomorrow to see who the partner is). But it’s funny how each acquisition spreads rumors in its wake…
Stay tuned for more (unsubstantiated) rumors.
Yves
Today’s IT news space is abuzz with two major takeover announcements, and I thought I would share my thoughts on them…
First of all, I want to offer my congratulations to Marten Mickos – I really admire his accomplishments and what he made of MySQL.
1. Sun buys MySQL
This is good news, both for open source users and for open source vendors. For users, it means that MySQL will get the funding it needs to accelerate its growth, and take the product to the next step. MySQL is already a very strong product, with access to the vast resources of Sun it will become the killer database. Beware, proprietary database vendors!
For vendors (like Talend), it is one more proof point that open source is legitimate. For a major player like Sun to acquire MySQL, they must believe in the model. They did not spend $1b to play catch up or to fill a gap. They are clearly embarking in open source and are investing into it.
For competitors: MySQL was already a strong technical contender to Oracle and the other database guys, now it is also a serious business competitor. CIOs will no longer be worried about the solidity of the company when they make their choice. And it will be a lot more difficult for Oracle’s sales people to play out the FUD strategy.
As far as we are concerned, Talend will continue to go after the clients of proprietary vendors, starting with Informatica, leveraging the power of the open source model, our partnerships with other open source vendors and proprietary vendors, our key role in the Open Solutions Alliance, etc.
2. Oracle buys BEA
When Larry wants something, he gets it (with the notable exception of JBoss). He just ends up paying a premium – but he has deep pockets. See Siebel, PeopleSoft, now BEA.
Of course, that’s bad news for the users – it means less choice for them, and more dependency on super large vendors. One more thing they’ll have to buy from their Oracle rep.
2007 was a record year in the M&A field. In the data integration/BI space alone, DataMirror and Cognos became part of IBM, Hyperion was acquired by Oracle, Business Objects merged with SAP, persistent rumors about Informatica keep floating around… Let’s see what 2008 has in store for us.
Bertrand
 Today we initiate a challenge rewarding the users of our data integration solutions: the Talend Awards.
The goal of the Talend Awards is to reward interesting and high performance projects developed by Talend users, and to emphasize the gains they achieve. Talend Awards will be awarded in three categories: “best technical prowess”, “best ROI/business gain”, and “best performance”.
The first edition of the Talend Awards is open until January 31, 2008 at midnight CET. Nominate your project now!
A Jury, composed of members from Talend’s technical and marketing divisions and senior management, will designate the winners in each category.
This challenge is open to all users of Talend Open Studio, Talend On Demand and Talend Integration Suite, regardless of their geographical location, their industry and the goals of their project. The participants will submit to the Jury a questionnaire in which they will indicate the solution they are using the category in which they wish to enter, and the description of their project, emphasizing what makes their use of the solution special (challenge faced, features used, goals, etc.) and the gains they have experienced.
By launching the Talend Awards, we want to promote interesting uses of our solutions and representative case studies, and to strengthen ties with our users community. We will communicate on these case studies to provide visibility to our users.
In addition to the visibility, winners of the Talend Awards will:
- Become Talend Ambassadors: Talend Ambassadors are recognized by the Talend Community as expert users of Talend technologies. In addition they receive special perks (roadmap consultations, “get together” opportunities, Talend promotional merchandise, etc.)
- Win the latest iPod Touch: The winning entry in each category will receive an Apple iPod Touch, donated by Talend. In addition, up to two runner-ups may also be selected and will each win an iPod Shuffle.
So, if you are using one of Talend’s products, and whether you are interested by the visibility, by sharing your accomplishments, of by winning an iPod Touch, nominate your project for the Talend Awards now!
Yves
I found this piece, published by Bill Miller on ZDNet last week, to be particularly interesting. He describes in it the four driving forces for data integration in 2008.
According to research firm IDC, the global market for data integration should reach $2.9b in 2011. Bill Miller believes that traditional and packaged integration software used today in enterprises only partially meet their needs and that they usually still require custom developments. More flexible, more cost effective and easier to use open source solutions are emerging and start to replace custom developments. Talend Open Studio is part of this group, our customers’ case studies testify to this.
In parallel, four factors will contribute to the growth of data integration demand in 2008:
- A more systematic adoption and use of BI tools: traditionally used by large enterprises, these tools are now more affordable and available to SMBs. This growth of the use of BI tools will stimulate the integration market.
- The increased use of SaaS solutions: a major trend in 2007, that will extend in 2008, is the growth of these solutions. Bill Miller mentions research from Saugatuck that shows that 17% of US SMBs use one or more SaaS solutions. But to reap the benefits of these offerings, they need to be integrated with existing applications, for example via Web Services.
- The replacement of legacy EDI systems with B2B transactions based on Internet and XML: according to Forrester Research, over 20 million EDI transactions take place each day, and over on third of the US Gross National Product rely on EDI! The transition to XML should not only improve business processes, but also reinforce the use of integration tools.
- The increased use of RIA (Rich Internet Application) and the growth of Web 2.0: enterprise applications will rely more and more on technologies such as AJAX, Ruby or REST. But these technologies will need to be integrated with business processes and the back office, which will grow even more the integration market.
I will add a key element that I have discussed many times in this blog: interoperability. All organizations, regardless of their size, are faced with major interoperability issues in their quest for more agility. By the way, this will be a driving argument of my keynote at Solutions Linux on January 29. Hope to see you there!
Bertrand
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