Open Source: Alternative to proprietary world

BANGALORE, INDIA: Enterprise data integration needs are growing exponentially over time, as is the interest in open source technologies and the adoption of open source solutions, according to a global research study conducted by Talend, the recognised leader of open source data integration solutions.

The data used in this analysis was collected from over 1000 respondents, in majority from the U.S. (56.5 percent), followed by Europe (35.2 percent), with the rest of the responses (8.3 percent) originating in the rest of the World.

75 pc developers employ open source in APAC

Dramatic changes in the global economy has imposed strict cost controls on IT Managers, both in terms of staff and software, at a time when data integration represents an increasingly larger percent age of the enterprise IT budget.

“As companies merge, acquire new applications and build their IT platforms by incorporating disparate applications with legacy systems, information systems are becoming more and more heterogeneous. As a result, data integration tools are now indispensable if enterprise IT departments are to properly manage the flows of data across the information system,” said Yves de Montcheuil, Talend's Vice President of Marketing.

In this context, de Montcheuil believes that open source solutions offer a very compelling argument. “Open source tools can automate and maintain tasks formerly requiring manual scripts, and the existing skills of the IT implementation team easily transfer to an open source offering. Nor do IT departments have to justify significant up-front fees, a key consideration in today’s economic climate.”

Key findings of the research include:

* Operational data integration, whether batch or real-time, is a good fit for open source solutions. As business tempos speed up, real-time and nearly real-time operational data integration projects will prevail over bulk transfer projects. At the date of the survey, 40.0  percent of participants used open source tools to manage their batch operational data integration tasks, compared to only 22.9  percent for real-time projects, but the latter is a much faster growing segment.

Top five trends in open source

* Data loading (41.9 percent) and data migration (26.5 percent) are the second and third most popular types of project. Both of these are indeed good candidates for open source solutions, as they are typically one-offs, with no ongoing purpose that would justify a long-term investment in an expensive proprietary tool.

* Data synchronisation (19.1 percent) is also a popular type of project conducted by open source data integration users.

“Open source data integration solutions clearly offer a greater breadth of functional coverage and more flexibility in terms of adoption, deployment, and maintenance, than equivalent proprietary offerings” said Mr de Montcheuil.

Survey participants proved to use a combination of commercial applications, open source solutions, and databases utilities to meet their data integration needs. The statistics demonstrate that using open source and commercial solutions in combination is commonplace (31.2  percent of respondents), and that the two can, and do, coexist on the same platform. In fact, open source solutions are often complementary to an existing proprietary solution that, for functional or cost reasons, is unable to address a specific need.

Open Source Data Integration vs. Proprietary Solutions

In an ongoing effort to lower their data integration software total cost of ownership (TCO), many enterprises are now considering open source solutions, not just for one-time projects, but also for their ongoing mission-critical processes, to replace or complement their expensive CPU-dependent solutions.

“Open source solutions are a real alternative to the proprietary world. Key players have made major strides toward improving the usability and user-friendliness of open source technologies, which used to be a weak spot for these applications,” continued Mr de Montcheuil.  “In just a few short years, open source products have evolved into enterprise-ready solutions. Today, open source solutions are feature-rich and do meet the most complex user requirements.”

The survey results reflect these expectations.

* Respondents felt most strongly about ease of use (59 percent) and performance (53.9 percent) as the most important aspects of an open source data integration solution.

* Licensing cost is not the gating criterion for enterprises turning to open source solutions. It actually comes fourth after performance, ease of use, and no vendor lock-in (42.5 percent), with only 42.1  percent respondents considering it very important.

* Access to the source code comes last on most priority lists when enterprises are choosing open source tools.

* 60.5  percent of respondents want a scheduling tool that lets them consolidate and centralise their technical processes.

* 57.8  percent of users need a dashboard to centrally monitor processes as they execute. Because enterprise users often work in teams and need to share data on large-scale projects, 54.9  percent consider a shared repository essential.

* Finally, 38.4  percent of enterprise users want an administration tool to centrally manage users and projects.