We came across a very funny page on a proprietary vendor’s web site:
“Why do companies and organizations look to MicroStrategy for best-in-class reporting and business intelligence?”
We particularly liked Reason 4:
4. Better than open source
“Unlike some code in open source reporting products, MicroStrategy’s code is 100% safe and secure. We understand that many companies restrict the use of open source products to protect themselves from legal issues that can arise from misappropriated code. MicroStrategy supports the open source movement, ensuring that our products are optimized for open source operating systems (Linux), databases (mySQL and PostgreSQL), Web servers (Apache HTTP Server), and application servers (Apache Tomcat and JBoss). It’s important to note that open source BI products are not as mature as those from commercial vendors and they require more developer and administrator expertise, which increases the total cost of ownership.”
This is an excellent example of how to present every open source cliché in less than 150 words: unreliability, lack of maturity, TCO increaser, etc.
Is the code in open source reporting products safer, or less safe, than proprietary solutions? I can only say that open source vendors try to respect standards, which is hardly the case with the majority of proprietary vendors. And if, by chance, this is not the case, the open source user can dive into the code and correct it. Can you say the same for proprietary products?
And how can companies using MicroStrategy “protect themselves from legal issues that can arise from misappropriated code?” Oh yes… their indemnification clause. Open source has that, too.
Does MicroStrategy support the open source movement to ensure that its products are optimized for open source operating systems, because the company supports proprietary alternatives? Or because USERS DEMAND IT?
And where do they get that open source BI products are not as mature as those from commercial vendors?
Old quibbles, old trial, old lies
MicroStrategy seems like the last of the dinosaurs: still alive, yes, but for how long. With thinking like this, I won’t be at all surprised to welcome a few new clients who want to find out if open source solutions really increase TCO. Let’s help them increase their knowledge!
Bertrand
> Unlike some code in open source reporting products, MicroStrategy’s code
> is 100% safe and secure […] open source BI products are not as mature
> as those from commercial vendors
This is a great piece of FUD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
Well spotted Bertrand!
Interesting site, but much advertisments on him. Shall read as subscription, rss.
Nothing is 100% safe and secure and MicroStrategy in no exception. Check out the 8.0 GA release (released in Jan 2005) in which one could not even create compound Attribute and they wanted 3 months to fix it. Till the time of release of fix, no client could create attribute coming from WH composite key. They in fact, secretly passed patch to fix it to fretting clients.
I agree that no open source BI product comes close to any closed source BI. The money rules. Companies are going to open source only to save $$$. Open source BI products are not so feature rich as those from commercial vendors.
CEO owns 2/3rd of shares. So no one can buy MicroStrategy, Inc until CEO is bought. So this Elephant (not a big BI player) is gonna stick around for time to come.
Interesting… But what sign on novelties of the news?