OStatic

When we recently covered the results of North Bridge Partners' 2009 Future of Open Source Survey, I noted that many of the respondents said that they see open source Business Intelligence (BI) applications as highly likely to cause disruption in the next five years. For many people, though, this application category is murky and hard to understand. What do the applications do, and what can you get in the free, open source offerings?

It's no secret that certain parts of the world favor open source more than others do. Today, Actuate, which specializes in open source business intelligence applications, is out with its fourth annual open source survey results. The results are based on responses from global business and I.T. professionals from the financial services sector, public sector and the manufacturing industry. This year the survey also included Chinese respondents. Here are some of the highlights from the results.

Actuate, a maker of business intelligence, performance management and Java reporting software--and also an active member of the Eclipse Foundation--has just released the preliminary results of its annual open source survey. The survey included about 1,000 business and IT people, and was independently conducted by Survey Interactive. Among the findings, European firms appeared more receptive to open source than other companies around the world, especially in France and Germany.