BI - Comparison of open source and traditional vendor

Lowering the Cost of Business Intelligence With Open Source

Lowering the Cost of Business
Intelligence With Open Source
A Comparison of Open Source and Traditional Vendor Costs

2010 Technology White Paper

Lowering the Cost of Business Intelligence With Open Source

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary ....................................................................................................................... 1
Cost Comparisons: How the Vendors Measure Up ..................................................... 3
The Maze of Software Licensing ............................................................................. 3
Comparing Product Costs ....................................................................................... 3
Comparison of Open Source and Traditional Software .......................................... 4
Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 6
Total Cost of Ownership and Business Intelligence Tools ............................................ 8
Components of TCO for Business Intelligence ........................................................ 8
Simplifying Assumptions for This Report ................................................................ 8
Community Versus Commercial Open Source ........................................................ 9
Vendor Pricing Details Used in This Paper .................................................................. 11
IBM: Cognos 8 ................................................................................................. 12
MicroStrategy: Reporting Suite and MicroStrategy 9 .................................... 14
Oracle: Oracle Business Intelligence SE1 and EE+ .......................................... 16
Pentaho: Pentaho BI Suite .............................................................................. 17
SAP: BusinessObjects Edge and Enterprise Premium ..................................... 18
About the Author ........................................................................................................ 19

Total Cost of BI Software

Summary
When looking at the total cost of ownership (TCO) of BI tools, it's known that labor trumps all
other factors when a full project is considered from start to finish. This is often used as a
justification to ignore the cost of software and support, since the largest proportion of a BI
project's cost at any point in time is dominated by labor.
The problem with this thinking is that there is little evidence of a significant difference in effort
required with different BI tools, either during development or in maintenance. With the overall
differences being relatively small, one thing we can focus on is the total cost of software (TCS)
since this is partly under our control.

The top reason given for the use of open source business intelligence software is cost savings.
The question is whether open source matters when it comes to license and support costs. How
real are cost savings? How much does BI software and ongoing support actually cost?

This is a complex question because of the extreme variability and lack of transparency in
traditional enterprise software license models, packaging and pricing.

The short answer is that open source $1,600,000 $1,499,826
does matter. At the entry level with a $1,400,000
small number of users, open source $1,200,000

Cost savings
can be a little to a lot less expensive. $1,000,000
As the environment scales up the $800,000
difference becomes much more $600,000
noticeable, as shown in Figure 1. $400,000 $223,257
$200,000 $36,592
This chart shows the cost savings $‐

between the average of the top four Small Medium Large
Size of deployment environment
BI vendors and Pentaho, the open
Figure 1: Average 3‐year cost savings with open source BI
source vendor used in this paper.

With a small configuration of 25 users, the average cost difference is about 50% or $36,000.
With a large configuration of 500 users the difference is slightly more than 15 times. There is a
wide range between the least and most expensive vendors, so the savings vary considerably
depending on which vendor you are considering.

A key metric to use when comparing software cost across different sized environments is the
average cost per user. It varies over the size of environment because vendors have different
pricing models for entry‐level and larger configurations. This metric will help if you want to
know how much it will cost to grow the size of a BI deployment. In many open source models
the per user cost decreases since the price is not based on number of users.

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The chart in Figure 2 shows the per‐user cost savings over a three year period when using open
source. The cost of the top BI vendors was averaged in each of three differently sized
environments and compared to the cost of an open source license for the same environment.
The increase in per‐user savings Average per‐User Cost Savings
from small to large is a result of the
$3,500
cost difference in entry‐level BI $3,000
packages from the top vendors and $3,000
their standard enterprise licenses, $2,500 $2,233
and the general license scaling

Cost savings
advantage of open source license $2,000
$1,464
models. $1,500

As a rule, you can expect to save on $1,000
both license and support costs with $500
open source business intelligence
tools. However, the savings will vary $‐
depending on a great many factors. Small Medium Large
Figure 2: Average 3‐year cost savings per
The rest of this paper explains the
user of open source BI, by deployment size
details of enterprise BI licensing, the
factors that affect prices, and the costs of the top vendors for a specific set of configurations.

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Cost Comparisons: How the Vendors Measure Up
This paper examines the software and support costs of the leading business intelligence
providers and compares them to a commercial open source vendor (Pentaho) in an attempt to
answer the question of whether open source matters when comparing the total cost of BI
software.

The Maze of Software Licensing
Understanding BI licenses and pricing is difficult for buyers. Each vendor organizes features
differently and assigns them to different components or user roles. Typically, at least one
feature you require exists in an add‐on module that offers no other value but significant cost.
You have to rely on the sales rep to navigate through the complexity and deliver the best
configuration possible.
The many factors that are used to determine the price of the software are another challenge.
Most vendors treat this information as if it were a trade secret, like they do with their list
prices. This lack of transparency is problem for the buyer in much the same way lack of
transparency is a problem for a new car buyer. What's a reasonable price? How much are
others paying for the same software? Open source vendors tend to have more transparent and
simpler license models that lend transparency to the process.

Comparing Product Costs
The best way to compare BI costs is to create scenarios with the number and types of users,
then use the scenarios to price the software. We used three different scenarios to emulate an
entry‐level or small department configuration and the growth path from this to a rollout of BI
to a broader organization. The types and number of users are shown in Table 1.
Size Total Admin Professional Expert Basic The small configuration is a total
Users Users Developers Users Users of 25 users, medium for us is 100
Small 25 1 1 2 21 users, and large is 500 users.
Medium 100 2 3 10 85
We applied the 80‐18‐2 rule for
Large 500 3 15 50 432 the distribution of BI users, where

Table 1: usage scenarios and user counts 80% of the users do little more
than basic interaction with
existing reports or dashboards, 18% of the users modify the objects and do a modest level of
ad‐hoc query and analysis, and 2% are professional BI developers or analysts who support
others in their department. We also include a small number of BI administrators responsible for
the overall management of the environment. It's important to do this when buying BI tools
because of the large difference in the cost of components, making it easy to overpay.
The level of interaction at the basic level is viewing dashboards, running and scheduling reports,
filling in report parameters and simple sorting and filtering of results. Expert users and
professional developers need the ability to create objects in the BI environment and perform
ad‐hoc activities.

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Comparing BI products is difficult because of the variability in packaging and bundling of
features. Our assumption is that any end‐user features beyond the core functions of static and
interactive reports, dashboards, and ad‐hoc query and analysis is an extra and irrelevant to our
costing.
All product configurations we created are meant to provide only these functions for the given
scenario. The alternative approach is to try and get an apples‐apples feature‐based
configuration. This is almost impossible.
Vendors try to compete on numerous features as points of differentiation, which confuses
comparison. It's best when evaluating BI software to stick to the features you plan to use and
not try to factor in added value of unique features and their relative cost.
Our cost estimates include the production and non‐production (development and test)
environments. The cost covers both the initial price and the three year cost of support and
maintenance.

Comparison of Open Source and Traditional Software
One way to see how serious vendors are about lowering their TCS is by looking at how their
cost scales up with the number of users. Figure 3 shows the average per‐user cost over three
years. Moving from a small 25 user environment to a larger 500 user environment actually
increases the per‐user cost with traditional BI, while decreasing with open source.

Average Cost per User
$3,500
$3,000
$2,500
$2,000
Cost
$1,500
$1,000
$500
$‐
Small Medium Large
Avg Cost Trad. $2,664 $3,103 $3,174
Avg Cost Open $1,200 $870 $174

Figure 3: average cost per user, comparing traditional and open source across scenarios

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The rise in cost shown in Figure 3 is not representative of all BI vendors. The cost per user
declines for some, like Cognos, while increasing for others. This is shown in Figure 4. The rise in
cost per user across our scenarios is somewhat misleading because the small scenarios for all
vendors but Cognos are using entry‐level packages. This can reduce the cost per user by half.

$4,500 $4,230 $4,252
$4,072
$4,000 $3,732

$3,500 $3,191
$2,897 $2,922
$3,000 $2,808
$2,390
$2,500
$2,093
$1,902
$2,000

$1,500 $1,271 $1,200
$1,000 $870

$500
$174
$‐
Cognos Microstrategy Oracle Pentaho SAP
small medium large
Figure 4: average cost per user over three years, by vendor and scenario
What is important to note is the jump in cost per user when adding licenses. If you take
advantage of one of these entry level packages with a plan to deploy to more people at a later
time, the cost per user could potentially double.
If your environment won't grow or the BI package is generous enough (as it is with SAP) then
these options are good, although still not as inexpensive as open source. If your environment
will grow beyond the BI vendor's entry‐level package then be prepared for a big increase. It's at
this point where the cost advantage of open source BI becomes apparent.
Figure 5 shows the total cost
averaged across traditional BI $87,000
products and compared to the Large
$1,586,826
commercial open source cost. For
the small configuration the average $87,000
cost was twice that of open source. Medium
With 500 users the difference in $310,257
average price balloons to almost 20
$30,000
times the cost of open source. Small
$66,592
However, there is a wide range in
price between the traditional BI $‐ $500,000 $1,000,000 $1,500,000 $2,000,000
vendors across each of the three size
scenarios. When comparing total Avg 3 Year Cost Open Avg 3 Year Cost Trad
Figure 5: average BI cost per configuration, comparing
traditional and open source

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cost it can be more interesting to see how the individual vendors compare.
The total three‐year cost and the breakdown between license and support are shown for all five
vendors in Table 2, broken out by vendor and scenario. The full configuration and pricing details
are shown in the "Vendor Pricing Details" section which follows this one.
The gap between
Vendor Size Total License Total Support Total Cost
MicroStrategy and
Cost Cost
Pentaho is much
narrower for the small Small 58,184 43,618 101,802
scenario in this example, Cognos Medium 182,356 136,707 319,063
and all the vendors are Large 543,584 407,608 951,192
closest in cost at this Small 10,100 21,666 31,766
level. MicroStrategy Medium 174,500 115,170 289,670
Large 845,800 558,228 1,404,028
The reason for this is
Small 36,000 23,760 59,760
simple: all the vendors
SAP Medium 131,750 86,955 218,705
except for IBM had
Large 1,595,670 1,053,142 2,648,812
configurations priced for
entry‐level that we were Small 17,600 29,040 73,040
able to use. This made Oracle Medium 254,800 168,168 422,968
traditional BI products Large 1,124,200 741,972 1,866,172
more competitive. Small 0 30,000 30,000
Pentaho Medium 0 87,000 87,000
MicroStrategy is using an Large 0 87,000 87,000
open source tactic at the
entry level: they give the Table 2: three year total cost of license and support by vendor and scenario
software away for free for
up to 100 users. The reason the price is not zero here is because we had to add several licenses
to meet the user feature requirements in our configuration.
While this is an interesting offer, it comes with a catch, as do most of the entry‐level packages.
Most are limited to a small number of CPUs, usually fewer CPUs than is realistic for a
production environment with more than a small number of users. This is in contrast to an open
source license where that limitation does not apply.

Conclusion

The pricing information in this report can be used as a guideline, however the exact
configuration of licenses is a complex task so adjusting these numbers may not translate to
your environment. We avoided discount practices, so the real costs across both traditional and
open source vendors will be lower. You can consider this pricing as the high end of what you
could pay for these scenarios.

At this point it should be apparent that open source can offer a cost advantage. The amount
will vary depending on the size of your environment, availability of entry level BI packages from
traditional vendors, and the features you require.

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The rationale for deploying open source may be cost savings, but that cost can also vary based
on the reason for deploying. If the goal is to replace existing software then the focus should be
a reduction in support cost. If the goal is to add users or new features then the focus should be
on the relative costs between products.
From a survey of open source users last year, we found that the primary mode of deployment
was for new licenses rather than replacement of existing tools, with 32% of organizations
adding users to an existing environment via open source rather than the incumbent vendor and
41% using open source for a new project. The deployment scenarios are shown in Figure 6.

Using as part of a new system or project 41%
Adding new functionality to an existing system 18%
Supplementing a system with similar features 14%
Replacing internally developed software 11%
Replacing proprietary software 16%
Figure 6: Deployment scenarios for open source BI
New projects are a better deployment model for open source because the high cost of
acquisition is a significant barrier to starting a BI project. Traditional vendors' products have
been too costly for most departmental budgets or small to medium‐sized companies.
The recent introduction of SMB and entry‐level packaging by BI vendors has lowered the barrier
to entry, but not to the same level as commercial open source. Despite the entry level and SMB
offerings, the gap between the least and most expensive BI tools is three times the lowest cost
product.
Another advantage open source can offer is simplicity and transparency of licensing. It is easier
to see how much you will pay now and in the future. The traditional BI vendors have taken
steps to simplify their models, but the lack of transparency with bundling, editions,
components, user types and environments will likely continue.
Our final recommendation is to evaluate open source like any other enterprise software. Price
doesn't matter if the software doesn't do what you need. Open source software is still software
and should be evaluated against the same set of criteria you would use with a similar
application from a traditional vendor.

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Total Cost of Ownership and Business Intelligence Tools
Components of TCO for Business Intelligence

In order to compare BI costs and determine whether open source matters, we need to look
briefly at total cost of ownership. Most BI TCO reports estimate the cost breakdown over a
three year period to be approximately 70% labor, 20% software and 10% hardware, as shown in
Figure 3.
Hardware
A standard three year time period was used to calculate 10%
the total initial and ongoing costs of BI software. Three
Labor
to five years are commonly used because that tends to 70%
be the range companies use to depreciate capitalized
assets, assuming they can capitalize software. For BI Software
software, a longer period is likely to be a better fit 20%
because the BI tool refresh cycle for most
implementations is five years. We kept to the standard
of three years for this paper. Figure 3: division of BI costs over three years

For example, the 2007 IDC study "Demonstrating Business Value: Selling to Your C‐Level
Executives" put staffing cost in the range of 60% to 85% over three years. Their advice to save
money long‐term is to evaluate the features that reduce staffing costs.

The problem with this advice is that labor‐saving differences are hard to find or quantify
between the tools except over the baseline of hand‐coding. Claims of increased productivity via
new features are often offset by decreased productivity due to more product complexity. Given
the similarity in features across BI products, it's fair to assume productivity is equivalent across
most vendors' products. Therefore the primary controllable cost will be software and support.

Underuse is another reason to focus on software as a key factor in reducing BI costs. Most
organizations are not fully aligned with their licenses. Some use more software than their
licenses allow, but many more are paying for unused software. Several surveys of the BI market
report that more than half of BI licenses go unused.

Simplifying Assumptions for This Report
To make the cost comparison more straightforward we made several simplifying assumptions:

• The underlying data warehouse is the same in all cases, and we're simply layering BI on
top of that platform. This means the database and hardware costs are equivalent across
the different BI tools.
• There are differences in hardware requirements for different BI tools, but it's most often
the case that if a tool has a smaller server footprint then it shifts workload to the
database, or vice versa. This means that hardware costs are simply shifted, and there is

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not a significant difference in hardware cost across BI vendors for the range of size
configurations we're using.
• To date, we are not aware of any viable quantitative studies showing that one vendor is
significantly easier to use or manage than any other. By "significant" we mean easier to
the point where the number of BI staff is measurably lower for a given vendor. This
means we can assume that labor costs are reasonably close across the tools.
• All of the vendors have entry‐level and small to mid‐market (SMB) packages. These are
usually restricted to companies of a given revenue size or employee count, so they can't
be used or they give a distorted view that applies to only one portion of the market. We
used a package only if it was applicable to all customers and fit our scenarios.

Given these assumptions, the primary cost differentiator from one BI environment to another
will not be labor but the price of software licenses and support. Hence our focus on the total
cost of software (TCS) rather than the total cost of ownership.

Community Versus Commercial Open Source
There is still confusion in the market about what constitutes open source and the difference
between community and commercial editions. When we look at software cost, we are looking
at supported, enterprise versions of open source BI software because that is most commonly
deployed by organizations. If we were comparing unsupported or community editions of open
source then the paid license and support costs would be zero.
There are two models of support for open source. One is community‐based open source, often
call "free and open source" or FOSS for short. The other is commercial open source software,
usually abbreviated as COSS.
Most people are familiar with the free and open source model because it's been around the
longest and receives the most attention. In this model, volunteers contribute to development
and maintenance of the software. In some cases, they may be full‐time employees of a non‐
profit organization owning the software, but the project does not operate like a traditional
software company. There is no profit motive. The software is available free of charge to anyone
who wants it.
Many of the myths about commercial open source stem from this origin in the shareware and
FOSS world. In the early days, open source was often designed and built for personal use by
individual developers rather than as part of an organization's IT infrastructure.
Because most people are familiar with the FOSS model, they mis‐apply the ideas to the COSS
model. Commercial open source came about for a different reason. Commercial open source
vendors make money by filling gaps in the FOSS model, for example by adding enterprise
features and support.
Enterprise use of open source was challenging in the early days because the products lacked
much of the "finishing" work commercial products receive. Documentation in FOSS projects is
often weak, quality varies based on community, and regularly scheduled fixes, software
releases and support are often lacking.

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Commercial open source evolved with recognition that companies are willing to pay for
support, service, and other less tangible items like indemnification or certifying interoperability
with other vendor's products.
A commercial open source vendor is similar to a traditional software vendor, but one difference
is that the source code is not shrouded in secrecy. This enables more and deeper interaction
between customers and developers, making the open source model more community‐focused
than the traditional model.
In contrast to the majority of FOSS projects, commercial open source vendors employ most of
the project's developers and expect to make a profit while doing so. They provide the same
services and support that traditional vendors do, frequently with more flexibility and lower
cost. COSS vendors use elements of the proprietary model such as providing support contracts
or selling non‐open source components that can be purchased in addition to, or in place of, the
free version of the software.
The two different editions of software that are offered (community and commercial) can cause
confusion. When you evaluate software it is important to note whether you are looking at the
free or paid version.
COSS vendors are still software companies. If you purchase a paid enterprise version then you'll
find that the experience is not substantially different than buying software from a proprietary
vendor. The key difference is the transparency with which COSS vendors operate.

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Vendor Pricing Details Used in This Paper
This section contains the detailed configurations for each vendor by small, medium and large
scenarios.
The lack of transparency in licensing and prices made this information difficult to obtain. We
started with the information that is publicly available at the GSA web site, but this information
can be inaccurate and often reflects government discounts. Therefore most of the pricing
information here was provided by vendors.
In all cases we attempted to maintain the list prices and ensure that no discounts were applied
so our comparisons could be meaningful. This excluded all government, educational and SMB
discounts.
Even with this, prices could vary depending on what assumptions are made about specific
packaging, editions, bundles and features. We disclosed every line item and what users it was
for to make these assumptions clear.
One notable omission from the leading BI vendors (based on market share) is Microsoft. Our
assumption of a common data warehouse platform meant we could not include them because
they force a specific operating system and database into the mix. The other vendors don't have
this dependency. Our estimated pricing for Microsoft showed them to be roughly in line with
other BI vendors' per‐user costs if all dependencies are taken into account.

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IBM: Cognos 8
The pricing for IBM in the small configuration is the highest as a result of their omission of some
components from their entry level package and their policy of charging for development and
test environments. This adds considerably to their price in both the small and medium
configurations.
The licensing of development and test is based on "processor value units" which vary based on
CPU models. It's necessary to consult IBM's web site to work out the exact number of PVUs to
multiply the unit cost by. In our case, assuming Intel dual‐core Xeon processors, this worked out
to 100 per CPU which is reflected in the "units' column of the price chart.

Software Support First Year 3 Year
User type Product Component Description Units Price Price Cost Total
IBM COGNOS 8 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ADMINISTRATOR AUTHORIZED USER
Admin / IT LICENSE + SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS 1 $ 13,500 $ - $ 13,500 $ 13,500
Admin / IT ANNUAL SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT RENEWAL 1 $ - $ 2,700 $ - $ 5,400
IBM COGNOS 8 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONAL AUTHORIZED USER
Professional LICENSE + SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS 1 $ 3,240 $ - $ 3,240 $ 3,240
Professional ANNUAL SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT RENEWAL 1 $ - $ 648 $ - $ 1,296
IBM COGNOS 8 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ADVANCED BUSINESS AUTHOR
Expert user AUTHORIZED USER LICENSE + SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS 3 $ 1,630 $ - $ 4,890 $ 4,890
Expert user AUTHORIZED USER ANNUAL SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT RENEWAL 3 $ - $ 326 $ - $ 1,956
IBM COGNOS 8 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE CONSUMER AUTHORIZED USER
Basic user LICENSE + SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS 20 $ 865 $ - $ 17,300 $ 17,300
Basic user ANNUAL SW SUBSCRIPTION & SUPPORT RENEWAL 20 $ - $ 173 $ - $ 6,920
IBM COGNOS 8 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOR NON-PRODUCTION
ENVIRONMENT PROCESSOR VALUE UNIT (PVU) LICENSE + SW SUBSCRIPTION
Dev environment & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS 100 $ 338 $ - $ 33,800 $ 33,800
ENVIRONMENT PROCESSOR VALUE UNIT (PVU) ANNUAL SW SUBSCRIPTION &
Dev environment SUPPORT RENEWAL 100 $ - $ 68 $ - $ 13,500

Test environment n/a 0 $ - $ - $ - $ -

Test environment n/a 0 $ - $ 68 $ - $ -
Note: dev environment is a single cpu dual core Xeon, PVU calc per IBM is 50*2 Totals $ 72,730 $ 101,802
IBM pricing for small BI configuration
The medium configuration adds users and a test environment, but uses the same edition and
model as the small configuration (shown on next page).

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Test environment & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS 100 $ 338 $ - $ 33,800 $ 33,800
Test environment SUPPORT RENEWAL 100 $ - $ 68 $ - $ 13,500
Note: assumed dev environment is dual CPU dual core Xeon, test is 1 CPU, PVU/core per IBM is 50 Totals $ 227,945 $ 319,063

IBM pricing for medium BI configuration
In the large configuration IBM cost less than the other traditionally‐licensed BI products. Based
on their license structure and policies, one could infer that they are focused on the larger
environments at the expense of the smaller end of the BI market.
Test environment & SUPPORT 12 MONTHS 200 $ 338 $ - $ 67,600 $ 67,600
Test environment SUPPORT RENEWAL 200 $ - $ 68 $ - $ 27,000
Note: assumed dev environment is dual CPU dual core Xeon, test is 1 CPU, PVU/core per IBM is 50 Totals $ 679,480 $ 951,192

IBM pricing for large BI configuration

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MicroStrategy: Reporting Suite and MicroStrategy 9
The small configuration for MicroStrategy qualifies for the MicroStrategy Reporting Suite. The
licensing for this edition is free for the first 100 named users, making it a direct challenger to
the open source BI offerings on the market. The support cost is also very low, making it
attractive for entry level BI environments just getting started.
The costs shown are higher than just the support cost because in our configuration there are a
few components needed to meet our core feature requirements and these need additional
licenses. Another factor is the limit of Reporting Suite to a single core (not a single CPU), which
severely limits the usability of the product. Buying support and additional licenses permits an
additional core and an additional server for one of MicroStrategy’s server components, allowing
a reasonable departmental server configuration.
Component requirements and limitations are the reason it’s important to ensure that any BI
configuration you are looking at has the core features you need.

Base license Standard Technical Support, Reporting Suite, 25 users 1 $ - $ 5,000 $ 5,000 $ 15,000
Admin / IT covered in line 1 1 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Professional covered in line 1 1 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Expert user MicroStrategy Report Services Option 3 $ 400 $ 88 $ 1,464 $ 1,992
Expert user MicroStrategy Web Analyst Option 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Basic user MicroStrategy Report Services Option 20 $ 400 $ 88 $ 9,760 $ 13,280
Dev environment Named user licenses have access to dev/test 1 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Test environment n/a 0 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Totals $ 17,322 $ 31,766

MicroStrategy pricing for small BI configuration
Our medium configuration also qualifies for MicroStrategy Reporting Suite, however the CPU
limitations make it unreasonable to consider for a 100 user environment. The enterprise
licensing is used for the configuration (shown in the table below). This is the reason for the
large price increase over the entry‐level configuration.
The jump in cost demonstrates one of the problems with entry‐level and SMB configurations
for enterprise software: the costs sometimes don’t scale up as users are added. This creates a
large increase when moving to enterprise edition licenses.

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Admin / IT MicroStrategy Architect (included) 2 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Desktop Analyst Module (included) 2 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Desktop Designer Option (included) 2 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Module 2 $ 300 $ 66 $ 732 $ 996
Admin / IT Microstrategy Intelligence Server Universal Option 2 $ 300 $ 66 $ 732 $ 996
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Report Services Option 2 $ 400 $ 88 $ 976 $ 1,328
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Web Analyst Option 2 $ 300 $ 66 $ 732 $ 996
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Web Professional Option 2 $ 300 $ 66 $ 732 $ 996
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Web Reporter Module 2 $ 300 $ 66 $ 732 $ 996
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Web Universal Option 2 $ 250 $ 55 $ 610 $ 830
Professional MicroStrategy Desktop 3 2000 $ 440 $ 7,320 $ 9,960
Professional MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Module 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Professional Microstrategy Intelligence Server Universal Option 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Professional MicroStrategy Report Services Option 3 $ 400 $ 88 $ 1,464 $ 1,992
Professional MicroStrategy Web Analyst Option 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Professional MicroStrategy Web Professional Option 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Professional MicroStrategy Web Reporter Module 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Professional MicroStrategy Web Universal Option 3 $ 250 $ 55 $ 915 $ 1,245
Expert user MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Module 10 $ 300 $ 66 $ 3,660 $ 4,980
Expert user Microstrategy Intelligence Server Universal Option 10 $ 300 $ 66 $ 3,660 $ 4,980
Expert user MicroStrategy Web Reporter Module 10 $ 300 $ 66 $ 3,660 $ 4,980
Expert user MicroStrategy Web Universal Option 10 $ 250 $ 55 $ 3,050 $ 4,150
Basic user MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Module 85 $ 300 $ 66 $ 31,110 $ 42,330
Basic user Microstrategy Intelligence Server Universal Option 85 $ 300 $ 66 $ 31,110 $ 42,330
Basic user MicroStrategy Web Reporter Module 85 $ 300 $ 66 $ 31,110 $ 42,330
Basic user MicroStrategy Web Universal Option 85 $ 250 $ 55 $ 25,925 $ 35,275

Dev environment MicroStrategy Object Manager Unlimited Intelligence Server Named Users 1 7500 $ 1,650 $ 9,150 $ 12,450
Test environment Named user licenses have access to dev/test 3 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Totals $ 212,890 $ 289,670

MicroStrategy pricing for medium BI configuration
The large configuration uses standard enterprise pricing.
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Architect (included) 2 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Desktop Analyst Module (included) 2 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Desktop Designer Option (included) 2 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Module 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Admin / IT Microstrategy Intelligence Server Universal Option 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Report Services Option 3 $ 400 $ 88 $ 1,464 $ 1,992
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Web Analyst Option 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Web Professional Option 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Web Reporter Module 3 $ 300 $ 66 $ 1,098 $ 1,494
Admin / IT MicroStrategy Web Universal Option 3 $ 250 $ 55 $ 915 $ 1,245
Professional MicroStrategy Desktop 15 2000 $ 440 $ 36,600 $ 49,800
Professional MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Module 15 $ 300 $ 66 $ 5,490 $ 7,470
Professional Microstrategy Intelligence Server Universal Option 15 $ 300 $ 66 $ 5,490 $ 7,470
Professional MicroStrategy Report Services Option 15 $ 400 $ 88 $ 7,320 $ 9,960
Professional MicroStrategy Web Analyst Option 15 $ 300 $ 66 $ 5,490 $ 7,470
Professional MicroStrategy Web Professional Option 15 $ 300 $ 66 $ 5,490 $ 7,470
Professional MicroStrategy Web Reporter Module 15 $ 300 $ 66 $ 5,490 $ 7,470
Professional MicroStrategy Web Universal Option 15 $ 250 $ 55 $ 4,575 $ 6,225
Expert user MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Module 50 $ 300 $ 66 $ 18,300 $ 24,900
Expert user Microstrategy Intelligence Server Universal Option 50 $ 300 $ 66 $ 18,300 $ 24,900
Expert user MicroStrategy Web Reporter Module 50 $ 300 $ 66 $ 18,300 $ 24,900
Expert user MicroStrategy Web Universal Option 50 $ 250 $ 55 $ 15,250 $ 20,750
Basic user MicroStrategy Intelligence Server Module 432 $ 300 $ 66 $ 158,112 $ 215,136
Basic user Microstrategy Intelligence Server Universal Option 432 $ 300 $ 66 $ 158,112 $ 215,136
Basic user MicroStrategy Web Reporter Module 432 $ 300 $ 66 $ 158,112 $ 215,136
Basic user MicroStrategy Web Universal Option 432 $ 250 $ 55 $ 131,760 $ 179,280
Dev environment MicroStrategy Object Manager Unlimited Intelligence Server Named Users 1 15000 $ 3,300 $ 18,300 $ 24,900
Totals $ 1,031,876 $ 1,404,028
MicroStrategy pricing for large BI configuration

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Oracle: Oracle Business Intelligence SE1 and EE+
For the small configuration we were able to take advantage of Oracle’s Business Intelligence
Standard Edition One, a BI edition for less than 50 users. This edition includes a copy of the
Oracle database and Oracle Warehouse Builder but it is limited to 2 CPUs and OWB is
constrained to the local database as a target. This makes it unrealistic for a full data warehouse
environment but it remains suitable for the BI component.

Admin / IT Server Administrator 1 $ 5,800 $ 1,276 $ 7,076 $ 9,628
Admin / IT Standard Edition One 1 $ 1,200 $ 264 $ 1,464 $ 1,992
Professional Standard Edition One 1 $ 1,200 $ 264 $ 1,464 $ 1,992
Expert user Standard Edition One 3 $ 1,200 $ 264 $ 4,392 $ 5,976
Basic user Standard Edition One 20 $ 1,200 $ 264 $ 29,280 $ 39,840
Dev environment Server Administrator 1 $ 5,800 $ 1,276 $ 7,076 $ 9,628
Dev environment Standard Edition One 2 $ 1,200 $ 264 $ 2,928 $ 3,984
Test environment 0 0 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Totals $ 53,680 $ 73,040
Oracle pricing for small BI configuration
The medium and large configurations both use Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise
Edition Plus. Oracle charges for non‐production use. The combination of higher per‐user prices
and the charge for development and test environments increased the cost of Oracle for the
larger configurations.
Admin / IT Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 2 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 4,880 $ 6,640
Professional Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 3 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 7,320 $ 9,960
Expert user Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 10 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 24,400 $ 33,200
Basic user Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 85 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 207,400 $ 282,200
Dev environment Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 5 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 12,200 $ 16,600
Test environment Server Administrator 2 $ 5,800 $ 1,276 $ 14,152 $ 19,256
Test environment Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 5 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 12,200 $ 16,600
Totals $ 310,856 $ 422,968
Oracle pricing for medium BI configuration
The large configuration uses the same OBIEE+ edition.
Admin / IT Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 3 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 7,320 $ 9,960
Professional Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 15 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 36,600 $ 49,800
Expert user Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 50 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 122,000 $ 166,000
Basic user Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 432 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 1,054,080 $ 1,434,240
Dev environment Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 18 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 43,920 $ 59,760
Test environment Server Administrator 3 $ 5,800 $ 1,276 $ 21,228 $ 28,884
Test environment Oracle BI Suite Enterprise Edition Pl 18 $ 2,000 $ 440 $ 43,920 $ 59,760
Totals $ 1,371,524 $ 1,866,172

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Oracle pricing for large BI configuration

Pentaho: Pentaho BI Suite
Pentaho provides software under a subscription license, with the primary factor being the
number of users. For the small configuration we used the "Silver" level, which imposes a
restriction of no more than 25 users. Like other BI vendors, this is an entry‐level license
meaning it's designed primarily for the SMB and starter market.

Support Pentaho Silver edition 1 $ - $ 10,000 $ 10,000 $ 30,000
Expert user covered in line 1 3 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Basic user covered in line 1 20 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Dev environment no charge 1 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Test environment 0 0 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Totals $ 10,000 $ 30,000
Pentaho pricing for small BI configuration
The medium configuration uses a "Gold" Pentaho Enterprise Edition subscription. These are
unlimited user licenses priced by CPU band. For our configuration this places an upper limit of 6
CPUs (not cores, so multi‐core CPUs can be used). For both the medium and large configuration
we were therefore able to use the first tier since the server could contain up to 24 cores.
Support Pentaho Gold edition 1 $ - $ 29,000 $ 29,000 $ 87,000
Test environment no charge 3 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Totals $ 29,000 $ 87,000
Pentaho pricing for medium BI configuration

Support Pentaho Gold edition 1 $ - $ 29,000 $ 29,000 $ 87,000
Test environment no charge 3 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Totals $ 29,000 $ 87,000
Pentaho pricing for large BI configuration

Page 17


SAP: BusinessObjects Edge and Enterprise Professional
The small configuration qualified for the SAP Business Objects Edge edition which includes all
relevant functionality and enough licenses of admin and professional developer components
that no additional licenses were required. The Edge edition is limited to a single server but the
server size is not limited as it is with similar editions of MicroStrategy and Oracle.
Base license Business Objects Edge 3.1 Standard 10 NUL 3 $ 36,000 $ 7,920 $ 43,920 $ 59,760
Admin / IT 1 dev license per 10 NULs, covered in line 1 1 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Professional 1 dev license per 10 NULs, covered in line 1 1 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Expert user 1 dev license per 10 NULs, covered in line 1 3 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Totals $ 43,920 $ 59,760
SAP pricing for small BI configuration
The Edge packaging made SAP more competitive for the small and medium configurations even
though both Pentaho's and MicroStrategy's base licenses were free and only a few add‐on
components added to the cost of MicroStrategy. This made SAP the lowest cost traditional
vendor for the medium configuration.
Base license Business Objects Edge 3.1 Standard 10 NUL 10 $ 12,000 $ 2,640 $ 146,400 $ 199,200
Admin / IT SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise Named User 2 $ 1,220 $ 268 $ 2,977 $ 4,050
Professional SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise Named User 3 $ 1,220 $ 268 $ 4,465 $ 6,076
Expert user 1 dev license per 10 NULs, covered in line 1 10 $ - $ - $ - $ -
Totals $ 153,842 $ 209,326
SAP pricing for medium BI configuration
The large configuration required enterprise licensing, as with all the other vendors. SAP
changed their pricing policy and no longer charges for non‐production environments, making
them more competitive with enterprise licensing.
Software Support First Year 3 Ye ar

Admin / IT SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Prof. QRA Named User 3 $ 1,250 $ 275 $ 4,575 $ 6,225

Admin / IT SAP BusinessObjects Desktop Intelligence Named User 3 $ 1,130 $ 249 $ 4,136 $ 5,627
Admin / IT SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise Named User 3 $ 1,220 $ 268 $ 4,465 $ 6,076
Admin / IT SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Named User 3 $ 1,130 $ 249 $ 4,136 $ 5,627

Professional SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Prof. QRA Named User 15 $ 1,250 $ 275 $ 22,875 $ 31,125
Professional SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise Named User 15 $ 1,220 $ 268 $ 22,326 $ 30,378
Professional SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Named User 15 $ 1,130 $ 249 $ 20,679 $ 28,137
Expert user SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Prof. QRA Named User 50 $ 1,250 $ 275 $ 76,250 $ 103,750
Expert user SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise Named User 50 $ 1,220 $ 268 $ 74,420 $ 101,260
Expert user SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Named User 50 $ 1,130 $ 249 $ 68,930 $ 93,790

Basic user SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Prof. QRA Named User 432 $ 1,250 $ 275 $ 658,800 $ 896,400
Basic user SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Enterprise Interactive Viewing NUL 432 $ 570 $ 125 $ 300,413 $ 408,758
Basic user SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Interactive Viewing NUL 432 $ 570 $ 125 $ 300,413 $ 408,758
Totals $ 1,562,417 $ 2,125,912
SAP pricing for large BI configuration

Page 18


About the Author

Mark Madsen is a research analyst focused on information management, BI and analytics. Mark
is an award‐winning architect and former CTO whose work has been featured in numerous
industry publications. He is an international speaker and manages the open source channel at
the Business Intelligence Network. For more information or to contact Mark, visit
http://ThirdNature.net.
Third Nature is a research and consulting firm focused on new practices
and emerging technology for business intelligence, data integration and
information management. The goal of the company is to help
organizations learn how to take advantage of new information‐driven management practices
and applications. We offer consulting, education and research services to support business and
IT organizations and technology vendors.

Page 19

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