I sat down with Brian Gentile, CEO of JasperSoft, to discuss what his open-source business intelligence software company announced Tuesday with regards to the evil empire. Here's what I found out:
JasperSoft BI Suite has achieved "Works with Windows" certification, which means that Jasper has passed the Windows Server 2008 test suite. This is an important step because a meaningful percentage of Jasper users are running Windows server.
JasperSoft ODBO Connect, which connects Microsoft Excel with Jasper Analysis multidimensional data sources, is immediately available. Connect is available for no extra charge with Jasper Analysis subscriptions. By contrast, other open-source business-intelligence companies charge for this functionality.
Why does any of this matter?
- Microsoft's overtones of love toward open source are perhaps more realistic than many of us (myself included) have previously thought.
- JasperSoft has recognized the market opportunity associated with Excel-oriented business intelligence.
- JasperSoft has re-affirmed its commitment to SQL Server.
This all makes sense to me as JasperSoft is solidifying its market position and recognizing the importance of the Microsoft ecosystem as it refines product and market strategy.