Topics for this podcast:
*Hadoop v1.0 and year ahead
*Oracle-Cloudera deal for more Hadoop
*Oracle’s ‘Sun spot’ with Solaris
*Open Source M&A outlook for 2012
*Our new MySQL/NoSQL/NewSQL survey
iTunes or direct download (28:49, 4.9MB)
The reason we are confident that the comparative decline in the use of the GNU GPL family of licenses and the increasing significance of complementary vendors in relation to funding for open source software-related vendors will continue is due to the analysis of our database of more than 400 open source software-related vendors, past and present.
We previously used the database to analyze the engagement of vendors with open source projects for our Control and Community report, plotting the strategies used by the vendors against the year in which they first began to engage with open source projects to get an approximate view of open source-related strategy changes over time.
For example, we found that the engagement of vendors with projects that used strong copyleft licenses peaked in 2006, while the engagement of vendors with projects using non-copyleft licenses had been rising steadily since 2002.
Analysis of our updated database shows that the the number of new vendors engaging with open source projects in each year has risen steadily in recent years, from 26 in 2008 to 44 in 2011. However, as noted last week, we have also seen a shift towards ‘complementary vendors’ – those that are dependent on open source software to build their products and services, even though those products and services may not themselves be open source.
2010 was the first year in which we saw more complementary vendors engage with open source projects than open source specialist, and that trend accelerated in 2011.
As previously explained, complementary vendors were responsible for over 30% of open source software-related funding raised in 2011, and we should expect that proportion to remain high given that over 57% of the vendors engaging with open source in 2011 were complementary vendors.
We have also seen that complementary vendors are more likely to engage with projects with non-copyleft licenses (38% of complementary vendors have engaged with projects with non-copyleft licenses, compared to 24% that have engaged with projects with strong copyleft licenses).
If we look at all 400+ vendors in our database in terms of open source software license preference, the trend towards new vendors engaging with non-copyleft licenses is clear.
There has been a strong shift from vendors towards non-copyleft licenses in recent years, accelerated in 2011 by the likes of Apache Hadoop and OpenStack in particular. This does not mean that the number of projects using strong copyleft licensing has decreased (although as we previously saw the proportion of projects using the GPL family of licenses has declined).
It is indicative, we believe, of the shift away from specialist open source vendors using vendor-led projects and strong copyleft licenses towards multi-vendor collaborative projects and proprietary implementations of open source code, however.
This trend should not really surprise anyone. For some time we have seen open source becoming part of the fabric of modern software development and licensing strategies, rather than a competitive differentiator. Back in 2009 we predicted the increased importance of business strategies that relied on vendor-led development communities, rather than projects dominated by a single vendor.
We called this “open source 4.0″ and later suggested that it might be considered the golden age of open source, based on our belief that vendors had learned that they stand to gain more from collaborating on open source projects and differentiating at another stage in the software stack than they do from attempting to control open source projects.
Updating the results of our analysis to the end of 2011 and 400+ vendors indicates that, from the perspective of the commercial adoption of open source business strategies at least, we were not far off.
Some might not consider the proliferation of multi-vendor open source communities and proprietary distributions of open source software as the peak of achievement for open source. Each is of course entitled to come to their own conclusions about the implications.
Our perspective, as always, is that open source methodologies present a potentially disruptive, and also valuable, asset that complements the way both vendors and enterprise IT organizations conduct their businesses.
Our analysis indicates, however, that open source methodologies are increasingly being employed by ‘complementary vendors’ with a leaning towards more permissive licensing.
One of the favourite blog topics on CAOS Theory blog over the years has been our quarterly and annual updates on venture capital funding for open source-related businesses, based on our database of over 600 funding deals since January 1997 involving nearly 250 companies, and over $4.8bn.
There are still a few days left for funding deals to be announced in 2011 but it is already clear that 2011 will be a record year. $672.8m has been invested in open source-related vendors in 2011, according to our preliminary figures, an increase of over 48% on 2010, and the highest total amount invested in any year, beating the previous best of $623.6m, raised in 2006.
Following the largest single quarter for funding for open source-related vendors ever in Q3, Q4 was the second largest single quarter for funding for open source-related vendors ever, as $230.4m was invested in companies including Cloudera, Hortonworks, and Rapid7.
As with Q3, however, the list of vendors presents us with something of an existential dilemma, as we see an increasing amount of activity by what we have referred to as ‘complementary vendors’ – those that are dependent on open source software to build their products and services, even though those products and services may not themselves be open source – as opposed to open source specialists.
The list of complementary vendors has grown rapidly in 2011, particularly around projects such as OpenStack and Apache Hadoop. If we examine the figures in more detail we find that over 30% of the funding raised in 2011 was raised by complementary vendors, compared to just 4% in 2006.
In fact, as the chart below indicates, VC funding for specialist open source vendors in 2011 was actually less than that in 2006 and 2008, and only marginally up on 2010, when again just 4% of funding went to complementary vendors.
The low amount of funding for complementary vendors in 2010 shows that the significance of complementary vendors is not growing at a constant rate, although for reasons that will become clear when we publish a follow-up post on the latest trends regarding the engagement of vendors with open source projects, we do expect that the proportion of funding related to complementary vendors is more likely to increase in the future, rather than decline.
This has implications for the ongoing trends related to open source software licensing, as covered yesterday. Examining our database of over 400 open source-related vendors – funded and unfunded, complementary and specialist – indicates that specialist vendors are much more likely to engage with projects using strong copyleft licenses than complementary vendors.
Specifically, our data indicates that 55% of open source specialists have engaged with projects that use strong copyleft licenses, while just 20% have engaged with projects with non-copyleft licenses. In comparison, 38% of complementary vendors have engaged with projects with non-copyleft licenses, compared to 24% that have engaged with projects with strong copyleft licenses.
Will will take a more detailed look at the trends related to the engagement of vendors with open source projects in the concluding part of this series of posts.
Funding for BlazeMeter and Digital Reasoning. Red Hat goes unstructured. And more.
# BlazeMeter announced $1.2m in Series A funding and launched the a cloud service for load and performance testing.
# Digital Reasoning announced a second round of funding to help develop its Hadoop-based analytics offering.
# Red Hat announced the availability of Red Hat Storage Software Appliance, based on its recent acquisition of Gluster.
# Red Hat also announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2.
# Jaspersoft released Jaspersoft 4.5, delivering drag-and-drop analytics and reporting on Apache Hadoop, NoSQL and analytic databases.
# Jaspersoft also delivered a second-generation native connector to MongoDB.
# CloudBees announced the availability of Jenkins Enterprise by CloudBees providing support and enhanced capabilities for the Jenkins Continuous Integration platform.
# Diaspora* is back in action, and outlined its plans.
# Talend announced that Bi3 Solutions has embedded Talend Integration Suite inside its Software-as-a-Service platform.
# DataStax announced new versions of Apache Cassandra, DataStax Community, and DataStax Enterprise.
# The H reported that Microsoft’s Windows Store agreement has open source exception.
# Black Duck Software announced the release of Export 6.0.
# Antelink launched SourceSquare, a free open source scanning engine.
Talend delivers v5. Zentyal raises series A. The TCO of OSS. And more.
# Talend announced version 5 of its data integration suite, adding business process management capabilities via an OEM relationship with BonitaSoft. Yves De Montcheuil explained the name changes in version 5.
# Zentyal closed a series A venture capital funding of over $1m by Open Ocean Capital.
# The London School of Economics released a report on the total cost of ownership of open source software.
# Couchbase announced the availability of the Couchbase Hadoop Connector, developed in conjunction with Cloudera.
# Rackspace announced the private beta of Rackspace MySQL Cloud Database.
# The debate over the role of open source foundations in the Git era continued, including a follow-up by the instigator, Mikael Rogers, a rallying cry for autonomy from Ceki Gülcü, and Simon Phipps warning about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
# Marco Abis is stepping down as CEO of Sourcesense.
# NGINX usage has grown almost 300% over the last year, according to Netcraft figures discussed by Royal Pingdom.
# The Wireless Innovation Forum announced the formation of the Open Source Framework for Commercial Baseband Software project.
Rapid7 secures new funding. Microsoft drops Dryad. And more.
# Rapid7 secured $50m in series C funding.
# Microsoft confirmed that it is ditching its Dryad project in favour of Apache Hadoop.
# Arun Murthy provided more details of Apache Hadop 0.23.
# The Google Plugin for Eclipse and GWT Designer projects are now fully open source.
# openSUSE released version 12.1.
# Amazon released the source code of the Kindle Fire.
# Black Duck Software joined the GENIVI Alliance.
# dotCloud announced the availability of the top three databases MySQL, MongoDB and Redis on its PaaS.
451 Research has today published a report looking at the funding being invested in Apache Hadoop- and NoSQL database-related vendors. The full report is available to clients, but non-clients can find a snapshot of the report, along with a graphic representation of the recent up-tick in funding, over at our Too Much Information blog.
Topics for this podcast:
*Continuent extends MySQL replication to Oracle Database
*CFEngine updates server automation software
*Devops moving mainstream
*Neo Technology integrates with Spring
*451 CAOS report from Hadoop World
iTunes or direct download (26:56, 4.6MB)
Cloudera raises $40m. Accel announces $100m fund. Rackspace takes OpenStack private. And more.
# Cloudera raised $40m in series D funding and announced a partnership with NetApp around its NetApp Open Solution for Hadoop.
# Accel Partners launched a $100m Big Data Fund to invest in Hadoop- and NoSQL-related vendors.
# Rackspace launched Rackspace Cloud: Private Edition, based on OpenStack.
# Quest Software released Toad for Cloud Databases – Community Edition.
# Splunk launched Splunk Enterprise for Hadoop to provide integration between Splunk and Apache Hadoop.
# Continuent announced supported MySQL-To-Oracle replication with Tungsten Replicator.
# Hadapt announced early access for Hadapt 1.0, combining Hadoop with relational databases.
# StackIQ announced the immediate availability of Rocks+ 6.
# MapR Technologies and Lucid Imagination announced a strategic partnership.
# Cloudera formed a strategic partnership with Karmasphere.
# EnterpriseDB announced Postgres Plus Connector for Hadoop.
# SCO Group, or what’s left of it, asked the US District Court for the District of Utah to reopen its litigation against IBM.
# Abiquo announced version 2.0 of its self-service cloud configuration and management software.
# Ian Skerrett reported on John Swainson’s key success factors for open source strategies.
# Gorilla Logic announced FoneMonkey for Android,
Appcelerator raises $15m. Hortonworks launches Data Platform. And more.
# Appcelerator raised $15m in a third round led by Mayfield Fund, Translink Capital and Red Hat.
# Modo Labs closed a $4m investment from Storm Ventures and New Magellan Ventures.
# Hortonworks launched its Hortonworks Data Platform Apache Hadoop distribution, as well as a new partner program. Eric Baldeschwieler put the announcements into context.
# Pentaho announced the latest release of Pentaho Business Analytics.
# DataStax announced the general availability of DataStax Enterprise and DataStax Community Edition.
# NYSE Technologies announced that it has open sourced its Middleware Agnostic Messaging Application Programming Interface, now called OpenMAMA.
# Bacula Systems announced the appointment of Frank Barker as its new CEO.
# Florian Effenberger provided an update on the status of the Document Foundation, while Document Foundation founder Charles H. Schultz compared LibreOffice to the Occupy movement and the Arab Spring.
# Oracle proposed the contribution of JavaFX into OpenJDK as a new project called “JFX”.
# Open source graph database provider sones was declared insolvent.