Congratulations are in order for the Jaspersoft team, under the leadership of Brian Gentile, who have announced earlier this month that they have secured $12.5m in venture funding from Adams Street Partners and Red Hat.

This announcement is significant for Jaspersoft and for the whole open source community.

For Jaspersoft of course, because it is a further validation of their model and of the great traction they have been getting over the past 2 years on many global markets.  As one of the other dominant players in open source BI, and as a close partner to Jaspersoft, Talend is in a good position to witness this growth - and indeed, Jaspersoft is present in more deals, more markets, and more partnerships than ever.  The involvement of Red Hat is also great news, given the strategic partnership between Jaspersoft and Red Hat and the weight that they represent in the overall open source community.

For the whole open source community, because it proves that in these uncertain economical times, there is funding available for successful companies: companies with traction, with a track record, with a solid business model, with a strong team - in short, with a recipe for success.  Jaspersoft has found this recipe.  I draw my (green) hat to Brian and his team, and I am proud that Talend is associated to such a successful company. Together, we can!

Bertrand

“The human being was not meant to belong to a herd, like cattle, but to a hive, like the bee.”
– Emmanuel Kant, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View.

NOTE: I don’t usually blog about specifically French topics - thanks to the rest of you for your patience.

A few weeks ago I was chosen as President of AFDEL’s open source subcommittee.  AFDEL - the Association Française des Editeurs de Logiciels - is a French consortium to which belong the most important software publishers in France today - Microsoft, Cegid, Dassault Systems, Pivotal, W4, etc.  Members may be of foreign origin as long as they maintain a subsidiary in France.

The creation of a subcommittee dedicated to open source and another dedicated to SaaS has been very well received by the press (ZD Net, CIO Online, and others). I must say that it would have been a shame to ignore this event.  The AFDEL - formed in October 2005 in response to the lack of representation of software vendors in France - originally only included proprietary vendors.  We had had several times heated (although always cordial and constructive) on is views about open source.  But at least a debate existed.

The creation of the open source and SaaS subcommittees is a very important step for AFDEL.  On one hand, it means that its members recognize the emergence of a new way of distributing software and one whose success has been astonishing.  According to Markess International, the global SaaS market is expected to reach €1.48 billion in 2008, representing over 13% of the French market for software.  Moreover, AFDEL members recognize the existence of the open source model for both business and development and agree that today open source fills a need.  And, failing to adopt it (for now!!!) they accept co-existence.  It’s an historic moment and a major will to consider globally the software business.

I did not expect that such a breakthrough would be attacked by certain open source “purists” (or those considering themselves as such).  Some use open source for ideological reasons (because the concept is elegant, etc.)  Talend chose this model because it allows the development of durable technology meeting very real enterprise needs.  We’re pragmatic, we’re in the market, we’re not ideological, we’re growing our business by making money, and no, we haven’t made a pact with the devil!  We have definitely proven that we respect deeply our model and our community and this is the reason why I have chosen to be involved in this adventure and to serve more broadly our position as a commercial open source vendor and a key player (at least from my standpoint) in the software world.

It’s no secret that Talend is a business supported by investors who, in turn, expect a return on investment.  This is also a guarantee for our project and our users that we’re in it for the long haul.

Calling Talend’s acceptance by AFDEL a betrayal of the ideals of open source is nonsense - we are in no way denying our philosophy, but we’re pragmatic.  The promotion of open source within AFDEL is actually an opportunity that we would be stupid to ignore, and that would be me first, as Talend’s CEO.  I must take this role very seriously, not so much for the benefit of Talend which has been able to grow without getting into politics or polemics, but for the benefit of the software industry, and also to be able to tell the world that France is a unmatched fertile ground for innovation potential.

And so I call upon all our colleagues to look beyond ideology and to stand with us in order to grow open source.  Don’t join the herd of fanatical ideologues, but rather our hive of specialists entirely dedicated to their roots and their clients.

The future of open source lies in its use by businesses, regardless of size, and by government and institutions.  What’s the point if not to devote as much effort as possible to the development of these solutions?  Isn’t there a contradiction between the desire to simply find alternatives to proprietary solutions and the completely idealistic will to overcome any need for funding?  In my opinion, Talend has found the right balance and it is our duty to help reproducing this experience. Here is my goal, clear and simple:

• Show that the open source model has a role to play in the software world
• Promote its values and assets
• Show to the world the stakes of this evolution

To conclude - I will not waste time getting involved in polemics on commonplace and worthless discussions.  I want to build a dialog and leverage the values that present our world with a fantastic opportunity.

Bertrand