When we did press interviews for our recent corporate announcement (the acquisition of Sopera and a $34m funding round), we had – as usual – side discussions with the journalists on the general shape of the open source market.  In London, Jason Stamper from CBR asked me what I thought of a comment by SAS Institute CEO Dr Jim Goodnight, saying that he “Hasn’t noticed [open source BI] a lot,” and that, “most of our companies need industrial strength software that has been tested, put through every possible scenario or failure to make sure everything works correctly.”

I did reply pretty bluntly – pardon my French – that is was all PR bullshit, that of course SAS was noticing open source, that they would just refuse to admit it publicly.  And I went on ranting on the benefits of the open source model for software quality.  And Jason, a great journalist, seized the opportunity to quote me verbatim (I am not going to pretend I blushed, these who know me wouldn’t believe it anyway).

I was very disappointed by responses from my colleagues from other leading open source vendors, who made much more conventional assertions, like saying that Goodnight did not notice open source because he did not get in the field, did not speak to his reps, etc.  Essentially, that open source was still flying under the radar.

Get real, guys!  Open source is no longer under the radar of proprietary vendors.  We are right in their face, up their… (OK, I’ll stop here, enough French in this post).  They are losing deals to us, day in and day out.  Their reps are equipped with competitive materials that only the largest vendors have the resources to produce (and since we are open source, they don’t even have to hack licenses or bribe clients to do so).  And when these reps interview with us, they come with advanced knowledge of our offerings, and many anecdotes of deals they’ve lost to us (which is usually why they send their resume).

Recently, an analyst told me Informatica was arguing that “from the technology standpoint, Talend is where Informatica was 15 years ago.” Well, Mr (or Ms) Informatica AR Person, I can see 2 options: #1 you believe your own BS, or #2 you are under strict corporate orders to be dismissive of open source.  And, malicious that I am, I believe it’s #2…

The fact is, Informatica is losing business to Talend.  Business Objects is losing business to Jaspersoft.  Lombardi is looing business to Bonitasoft.  Oracle is losing business to Infobright.  TIBCO is losing business to Sopera (now to Talend).  Siebel is losing business to SugarCRM.  And the list goes on…

They know it, they track it.  But they won’t admit it.  To paraphrase Jane Austen: pride, or prejudice?

Yves

PS: an afterthought – there is actually still one radar that does not notice open source.  Maybe that’s because it’s actually only one quarter of a radar…