Note: this post originally appeared in Talend’s July Newsletter.

Today, quite a lot of people think that open source means free software. This is partly because the word “free” (at least in English) connotes both “freedom” and “free of charge.” Then, too, the general public is typically aware of open source in the context of well-known products - like Firefox or Thunderbird - which cost nothing and are financed through non-profit foundations receiving advertising fees and donations.

The “no cost” concept, of course, relates to the “community” version of open source tools, which may be downloaded for free. In return, the community contributes to product improvement by developing extensions, connectors, and additional features, or testing the beta versions and identifying bugs, or even translating the solution into another language (see Talend Babili). These contributions benefit the community and the vendor by accelerating development, and by increasing both functionality and quality.

From the start, Talend has adhered to the “open core” model, based on the “dual licensing” concept which charges for certain open source features. For example, Talend offers Talend Open Studio at no cost and markets Talend Integration Suite, a complementary enterprise version which provides automated deployment, load balancing, monitoring, a collaborative work environment, and a tiered layer of support tailored to business customers. This version is, incidentally, very competitively priced when compared to traditional solutions.

Such additional features and specifications have a cost vendors carry alone and reflect the company’s R&D investment, rather than community development efforts. In summary, subscriptions finance the vendor and its R&D department, which integrates and develops the whole product. Ultimately, subscriptions will also finance products that are made freely available to the public.

With this in mind, Talend recently launched two new products - Talend Integration Suite MPx (to handle very large volumes of data), and Talend Integration Suite RTx (for integrating applications in real-time). Designed for specialized needs in the context of enterprise projects, both products are based on the same open source technology and are marketed via subscription license. Their introduction benefits all our solutions, free and paid alike.

For software solutions like Talend’s that are primarily used in business environments, the open core model provides a balanced solution for vendors and their communities. It allows companies to offer an economical, open alternative to proprietary solutions characterized by very high prices and their lack of access to source code.

Talend’s cornerstone is customer satisfaction. And given the growing number of happy customers, I feel we have chosen the best foundation on which to build our company. Through the open core model, we combine the advantages of open source philosophy (open code, freedom to modify, and community contributions) with the development imperatives of a commercial company (R&D, QA, continuous improvement, etc.)

Fabrice