Many organizations, both private and public, are currently evaluating or deploying Open Source BI tools (OS BI) like JasperSoft, Pentaho or SpagoBI. These three leading open source business intelligence suites offer a full range of BI capabilities, ranging from ETL to ad-hoc analysis and reporting.

Open source adoption increases

On a feature by feature comparison, open source BI tools still can’t beat the leading closed source offerings, but, as a leading analyst firm recently stated in a research paper: open source adoption increases, because it is often considered ‘good enough’.

OS BI tools worth considering

If you combine the ‘good enough’ factor with an attractive price point and the support delivered by the vendors, open source BI tools are certainly worth considering. More information about the maturity and implementation of OS BI can be found on http://www.tholis.com, the company founded by Jos van Dongen, a well known expert in the open source BI field.

Open source BI tools in the BI Survey

A profoundly, 100% vendor independent evaluation (103 criteria) of the open source BI tools Pentaho BI and Jaspersoft is included in the BI Tool Survey 2012 which is available for purchase and download.