VARs Partner To Deliver Open Source Tech To Government Agencies
"We're a master government aggregator," said Craig Abod, president of Carahsoft, Reston, Va. "We represent Red Hat, and have built a government practice around open source. There is a lot of inertia now for government agencies to look at open source. It can be very cost effective. They've figured out it is a secure method to deploy and build products. Red Hat has done a lot to convince governmental agencies that open source can be deployed in mission-critical environments. The government has caught on that open source is a good methodology."
It wasn't that long ago that open source software was viewed askance by the enterprise and government agencies alike. While they puzzled over security issues, smaller companies embraced open source as a less expensive and effective alternative to proprietary solutions.
"In reality, it's the lowest risk you can go with," said Matt Vitale, executive vice president of worldwide sales at Pentaho, Orlando, Fla. "You don't need millions of dollars down, and you're not forced to work with a company where you can't see the code. [Solution providers] can support it easily, and open source offers customers a better sense of support."
Business intelligence products, once centered around retail use, have found a place in the government arena, proving itself an invaluable tool in fulfilling reporting requirements, measuring requirements, and mandates on tracking. BI helps users get access to the required data, pull it for anaylis and report findings.
"The FDA uses [Pentaho's Open BI suite] for data integration for devices in radiological health group," said Vitale, adding that other engagements are underway in a number of agencies, including the departments of interior and education."
What made Pentaho attractive as a vendor to Carahsoft was its previous experience in the government sector.
"Pentaho is attractive to us as a vendor because it seems to have [reached] critical mass," said Abod. "It has enough paying customers to make us believe the company has longevity. It has closed good size deals with government customers, recently with the Navy." The Naval Air Systems Command recently put the Pentaho Open BI Suite to use within its Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance Program, a knowledge management process that uses flight data to provide information on various aspects of pilot and aircraft performance.
Like many in the civilian world, the Navy turned to Pentahos because it knew an open source solution could be implemented more cost effectively and quickly than a traditional one. "It was exciting because of the velocity of deal," said Vitale. "We literally had first contact with the customer to the deal closing in 34 days. The customer had looked at proprietary, legacy products, like Oracle's Hyperion and BusinessObjects'. When they got back the bids, there was shell shock. At the last minute it was, 'Oh my we have to find an alternative fast.' The value of any open systems solution is they could download it and look at it before reaching out to us."
Overall, the number of downloads monthly has also been impressive, Abod noted; the Navy wasn't the only prospect checking out Pentaho's product. In fact, Vitale said, the Pentaho software suite is downloaded 100,000 times a month.