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This week at LinuxWorld in San Francisco, we introduced Talend Integration Suite to the market. Talend Integration Suite is a subscription service that extends Talend Open Studio with technical support and additional features to support enteprise development and deployment.
The feedback we are getting both from the users community and the press/analyst community is excellent (see for example this LinuxWorld article: Open source lands in the enterprise with both feet). For the former, it does not come as a surprise since all of these features were asked for, and expected, by users. For the latter - no surprise either. Indeed, over the past couple years, the open source landscape has evolved tremendously. A number of software vendors have emerged, that have built a business around supporting and enhancing open source solutions. Some started with already existing projects, others, like Talend, develop a product, donate it to the community, and continue to support, maintain and enhance it. In order to work better with one another, about 20 of these vendors participate into the Open Solutions Alliance - always with the goal of providing better solutions to the market, and solutions that work well with one another.
Just to clarify - Talend Open Studio, the widely adopted open source data integration technology, downloaded over 100,000 times (download it now!), remains under the GPL v2 license - we are not changing that. Talend Integration Suite is simply an extension to Talend Open Studio, with additional enterprise features, detailed in this post from Fabrice. It also includes technical support out of the box, and is provided as an annual subscription.
So don’t hesitate, check out the new features of Talend Integration Suite!
Yves
We announced this week Talend Integration Suite, the first open source enterprise data integration solution, available as a subscription. Talend Integration Suite builds on Talend Open Studio and extends it with enterprise development and deployment options, as well as technical support.
I am proud to say that Talend Integration Suite is the fruit of relentless work from our hard working R&D team, but also of valuable feedback from our user community.
Actually, a few month ago, I met with the CIO of a large New York bank. His feedback was essentially this: his teams were using our product and were loving it - for its power, its ease of use, and of course the open source approach. He had seen what the product could do, and agreed that it was really powerful. But this CIO’s issue was the lack of enterprise features: teamwork, deployment, etc. He told me he would not allow Talend Open Studio to be deployed any further without these features - but that ne needed them so badly that he was ready to pay for their development.
Because this type of feedback was not the only one we got, we decided to build these enterprise features, and to leverage this development by offering it to all organizations who need it - not just to this bank.
Talend Integration Suite is a very significant milestone for Talend and the market, for several reasons:
- As I said before, it is the first and only alternative to costly proprietary data integration products. With Talend Integration Suite, we are on par with (if not better than) products such as Informatica’s or IBM’s as far as enterprise capabilities. But we still come at a fraction of their cost!
- With Talend Integration Suite, we are introducing a subscription mode. Talend Open Studio is and remains a “pure” open source product, licensed under GPL v2. The extensions of Talend Integration Suite, on the other hand, fall into the so-called “commercial open source” category: the source code is still visible and the way the product works is completely transparent, the annual usage fee includes technical support and the right to use these additional features.
As a comparison, this approach has also been adopted by a number of our partners, including JasperSoft or Ingres (both Powered by Talend partners and OSA members), MySQL or SugarCRM (both Talend Technology Partners), and many others.
I hope you will take a look at Talend Integration Suite and find its groundbreaking features useful for your organization!
Bertrand
Today Sean Michael Kerner published an interesting piece on InternetNews.com: Open Source ETL Takes On Proprietary Intelligence. Sean comments that the real target of open source vendors like Talend is to take share from the proprietary incumbents - not fight with other open source vendors (which may or may not be in the exact same space). Also quoted is Philip Howard from Bloor Research, who says (in substance) that Talend is a general-purpose (data integration) product which has a broader market opportunity. Also mentioned in this piece is our partner (and OSA co-founding member) JasperSoft, who incorporates Talend’s solution (rebranded as JasperETL, Powered by Talend) in their Jasper BI Suite.
Speaking of Philip Howard, I also enjoyed reading his article Open Source ETL in IT-Director - in which he says that “Talend may have entered the open source ETL market late but it looks to me like it will soon be the clear market leader in this space if it isn’t already.” I kinda agree with his vision…
A third article, published last week by Red Herring’s Eydie Cubarrubia, in which she comments on our Talend On Demand Software-as-a-Service offering, “an indication that it is possible to combine open-source software with an on-demand delivery model.”
Stay tuned for more…
Yves
 A couple weeks ago we broke the 100,000 downloads barrier. I would have blogged about this before, had I not been too busy with a new version, a couple press releases, an important tradeshow coming up (make sure to visit us at LinuxWorld in San Francisco - booth #1308-A, part of the OSA pavilion)… no excuse, I know.
Anyway - Talend Open Studio 1.0 was released 9 months ago - in October 2006. Since then, we’ve released 3 other versions: 1.1, 2.0, and 2.1. We have also released the first Software as a Service data integration offering - Talend On Demand.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support and feedback from the community, and we are all proud of the tremendous response and adoption curve we have seen in the user community. 100,000 downloads in 9 months - if you count business days only, that’s over a download per minute! Every minute, a new user is downloading Talend Open Studio and is opening the door of Open Source data integration (just to clarify: the 100,000 count is new downloads only, version upgrades are counted separately).
Open Source is spreading like wildfire in all domains of Information Technology. Data integration is no exception. Talend’s mission - democratize data integration, allow companies of all sizes to use a professional data integration solution, for all their integration needs - is definitely on the right track.
I’ll close this post with another number: 3,000. That’s the number of customers that the market leader in proprietary data integration says it has. Food for thought…
Oh, and if you haven’t downloaded Talend Open Studio yet - do it now!
Yves
I am proud to inform all the Talend community members that version 2.1 of Talend Open Studio is now in production and can be downloaded from our site. I want to thank all the people who contributed to this release - the Talend R&D team, the external contributors, our extensive beta testers community, etc.
Fabrice listed in a recent post the numerous new features of v2.1, so I won’t do this again here. I want to focus more on the significance of this version. This time we are not introducing any revolutionary concept such as the Java code generation or ELT architecture (like we did with v2.0). Rather, we are reinforcing the foundations of our data integration solution to make it more enterprise grade in several domains:
- In the data warehousing domain, with powerful support for advanced concepts such as Slowly Changing Dimensions and integration with SpagoBI.
- In the general data processing domain, with fuzzy logic matching using advanced algorithms, normalization and denormalization of data, as well as more join types.
- In the security domain, with support for encrypted protocols and files.
- In the connectivity domain, version 2.1 also features our new business connectors for Salesforce.com and SugarCRM (they have been available for a while in our source control system but are now integrated into the release), additional database connectivity, reinforced XML and Web Services support, database transaction management… the whole concept of data integration being to facilitate the interoperability of systems, Talend Open Studio is connecting to more and more different technologies! This is one of the reasons why Talend co-founded the Open Solutions Alliance.
- In the real-time domain, support for Message-Oriented Middleware and integration with the Spagic SOA platform reinforce the real-time dimensions, with Talend Open Studio now handling both the pull and push modes.
Overall, it might only be a “dot release” - but it’s quite a rich one. I encourage you to check it out and as always, provide feedback to help us make our products always better.
Yves
 We just announced that ETAI, a leading provider of technical information for the automotive, manufacturing and retail industries, leverages Talend Open Studio to unify its data production architecture.
This is an interesting customer for us, because ETAI’s business consists of producing and selling data.
ETAI conducted an in-depth analysis of the available solutions before choosing Talend. I was privileged to speak with Philippe Bobo, ETAI’s Director of Software and Information System. A couple things he told me are worth mentioning:
- that compared to proprietary solutions they looked at, Talend Open Studio offers greater flexibility.
- that even though Talend’s Open Source model does not cancel all costs, it alleviates them significantly, especially in the deployment phase. It also makes them easier to predict.
Obviously, Philippe Bobo confirmed one of the big advantages of the Open Source model - other ones including regaining control, and facilitating interoperability (one of the reasons why Talend co-founded the Open Solutions Alliance).
I will be posting more Talend success stories on this blog. Stay tuned!
Yves
 The Open Solutions Alliance, of which Talend is a founding member, is organizing its first Hack-A-Thon at OSCON in Portland, OR (July 23-27). It will focus on single sign on (SSO).
The Hack-A-Thons are a series of events intended to drive community participation in the OSA’s interoperability efforts. Each event will focus on a specific interoperability issue, and will include a tutorial followed by a directed hands-on-keyboard session to get several open applications to integrate.
A Tuesday tutorial will precede the Hack-A-Thon gatherings on Wednesday and Thursday. Tutorial attendance is desirable but not mandatory. An engineer from an OSA member organization and other OSA members will be available to help attendees. Software on CD-ROM and other media will be available at the tutorial. This will be a good time for participants to provide feedback and requests for enhancement.
You only need a free Exhibit Hall pass to participate into the Hack-A-Thon.
Hope to see you there!
Vincent
The Open Solutions Alliance that Talend co-founded earlier this year is really making headways! We announced this week four new members: 3 vendors (Ingres, CorraTech and Open IT Works) as well as our first Customer-level member (Redmayne Bentley, a UK brokerage firm). The Customer-level membership was introduced recently to further increase the dialog between vendors and users of open solutions, and I think this is a very positive enhancement to the OSA principles.
Several board members of the OSA have also recently been interviewed by leading publications or invited to deliver presentations at key industry events, further proving the leadership role the OSA is taking in topîcs related to open source interoperability:
- Barry Klawans, podcast interview by Scott Mace, IT Conversations
- Open Source, Open Integration, and the Open Solutions Alliance - Stacey Schneider, for Enterprise Open Source Magazine
- OSA Interoperability Roadmap Takes Priorities from Customers, Vendors - Dominic Sartorio, interviewed by IT Business Edge
Talend is also actively supporting the involvement of the OSA in major open source conventions (such as OSCON in July and LinuxWorld in August).
Welcome on board, Ingres, CorraTech, Open IT Works and Redmayne Bentley! You are joining a very involved and active community!
Vincent
This week we were at TDWI, supporting our partner JasperSoft who is providing JasperETL, Powered by Talend, as part of their Jasper BI Suite. JasperSoft actually launched version 2 of their suite at TDWI.
We met many users from small and large organizations, and it is clear from talking to these people that open source is really catching up in the BI space. Many users are looking for a way out of the closed source, non-flexible and overpriced proprietary solutions; and a lot of organizations who are new to BI are considering going the open source route. Since ETL is a critical component of the BI stack, we at Talend have a clear role to play there.
There were also a number of analysts who show lots of interest in open source - for example Mark Madsen ran a full day class on open source BI. We also spoke with other recognized industry experts including Claudia Imhoff, Shawn Rogers, David Loshin… They are all seeing open source quickly gaining adoption in the BI world.
Talend was also invited to record a Podcast with the Business Intelligence Network, in which I was quizzed by Ron Powell on topics that include Talend’s vision of the data integration market, open source adoption in the enterprise, which role the Open Solutions Alliance can play, etc. If you want to listen, it’s here (MP3, 7 minutes).
Yves
Next week, we will be supporting JasperSoft, our partner and OSA co-founding member, at The Data Warehousing Institute’s World Conference in Boston, Mass. (May 14-16). JasperSoft will be presenting the latest version of Jasper BI Suite, which includes JasperETL, Powered by Talend. Bertrand and myself will be there to support JasperSoft and meet members of the TDWI community.
If you’re in Boston next week, visit us there - JasperSoft’s booth is #208.
Yves
This week the MySQL Conference and Exposition 2007 was held in Santa Clara, CA. Roughly 2,000 MySQL users, administrators and partners gathered to hear the latest news from MySQL and their partners. Talend was a gold sponsor of this event, which was a great opportunity to meet with many MySQL users and partners, and also with MySQL staff members. Lots of attendees visited our booth and got a demo of the newly-launched v2.0 of Talend Open Studio. Fabrice, Talend’s co-Founder and COO, also delivered a technical session on operational data integration.
Our friends from JasperSoft were also sponsors, and so were a couple other OSA members.
Overall it was a good event for us, we are definitely getting a lot of traction in the MySQL community.
Yves
Hello again…
I have lots of catching up to do so I figured I should blog MASSIVELY!
I may have remained a little secretive on some of the activities in the US: the OSA.
A few of you may still ask: “What is OSA?” so let me tell you
“The Open Solutions Alliance consists of lea….” Sorry, for the definition, I’d rather refer you to its web site (OSA Website)… allow me to be factual:
OSA is an acronym that stands for Open Solutions Alliance
OSA regroups a few companies and organizations that want to play a role in the democratization of the use of Open Source in the enterprise
* OSA is NOT one of these alliances that you join “just to get your name out there”… In effect, as members, our commitment is real and is even part of the agreement each of us sign
It does take a fair amount of time, for some more than for others -btw, thanks to our commited board members!-, but the challenge is here:
OSA member or not, how can we, open source ISVs, Systems Integrators, VAR and community organization, lift the resistance for broad acceptance of open source based solutions in the enterprise?
It certainly isn’t a new question but what’s interesting to note is that rather than debating online or live, the OSA is clearly taking a pragmatic approach, working together, in a totally open, public manner, and trying to contribute to the open source community at large (See OSA Interoperability Roadmap).
Some of the outcome that we are already seeing may be motivating –since the word seems to spread out across the globe to some …unknown… countries (neteco.com OSA)- but what will, I hope, remain the most appealing to all are the facts, the real propositions, and technical standards that we are trying to define and promote (Common Customer View Prototype) in an attempt to remove any obstacle that may be on the way to Open Source’s complete success
The more contribution, the merrier so join the ride !
Vincent
Disclaimer: Don’t hold the OSA responsible for what I am saying here… it only represents my point of view which, I seem tounderstand, is what blogs are all about 
I heard today about the new partner program that our colleagues at Openbravo are launching. As you know Openbravo is the leading open source ERP and we are pretty close to them - actually we were both among the co-founders of the Open Solutions Alliance and I have taken great pleasure to work with Manel and Josep.
I think this new partner program is a pretty exciting opportunity for Openbravo’s partners to help organizations of all sizes get access to a customized ERP solution, one that really meets their needs (instead of trying to make their needs meet the solution). Before that, either you were a Fortune 1000 with a couple millions to spend - or you were stuck with a one-size-fits-all proprietary solution.
Kudos to Openbravo for this great initiative, I really think this is going to make a difference in the ERP world!
Bertrand
…and encounter a Philadelphia ice storm!
Last week was a great week again! Most importantly we had the opportunity to meet some brilliant people at Unisys, the key global IT consulting company.
Both the Open Source Computing Director and the Chief Architect of Open Source Strategic Programs were here to welcome us at Unisys’ corporate offices in Blue Bell, PA, and warmly welcomed our demo of Talend Open Studio. I bet TOS connectivity and interoperability are among our strengths that might meet some Unisys OASIS framework expectations…
Unisys is the first systems integrator that joined the Open Solutions Alliance, co-founded by numerous open source companies, including Talend (check out http://www.opensolutionsalliance.org for details).
Unisys also has an extensive experience with Open Source system migration and optimization, toward creating solutions tailored to meet the specific needs of their clients.
We probably should have checked the weather forecast powered by Unisys (http://weather.unisys.com), before trying to fly back to Boston and California… as we ended up experiencing a terrible late-winter storm that let us stuck at Philadelphia’s airport for 12 hours!
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