Big Data Buy: Pentaho Picks Up Development Partner Webdetails

Pentaho channel partners, many of which work with both Pentaho's applications and Webdetails' add-on software, praised the acquisition, saying they can now acquire both companies' technologies from a single source.

"This will put us in a position to develop some creative solutions for big data problems," said Davy Nys, vice president of Pentaho's EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and Asia-Pacific regions, in an interview.

[Related: Big Data Demands: The Heightened Need For Advanced Data Visualization ]

Pentaho, which develops a suite of open-source business analysis and integration software, is one of the big data market's rising stars, with a growing community of ISVs and developers.

Webdetails has developed a number of dashboard/data visualization plug-ins that work with Pentaho's software, including the Webdetails CTools series of products for creating and managing reports and dashboards. The company also has built up a thriving consulting business around its visual interface expertise.

Last year Pentaho and Webdetails worked together to launch the Pentaho Marketplace, where developers can share plug-in applications for the Pentaho platform.

Nys said the Webdetails acquisition would help Pentaho offer partners and customers a more complete business analytics solution that "steps up the UI to the next level. We want to rely on their creativity for some of the big data challenges we all see ahead of us."

While the acquisition brings Webdetails' professional services into Pentaho, Nys doesn't see that creating competition between the Orlando, Fla., vendor and its partners. "We lean very hard on our partners for delivery of services to our customers," he said.

Steve Adams, U.K. managing director at Linalis, a Geneva, Switzerland-based IT services company, agreed. "Quite clearly, I see it as a plus," he said, noting that his company has been a Pentaho partner since 2007 and has worked with both the vendor and Webdetails on a number of projects.

With Webdetails now under the Pentaho umbrella, partners such as Linalis can get "a fully supported Pentaho stack" from one source, Adams said. "It just makes the relationship much more clear," he said, saying engagements for big, complex projects will be streamlined.

Webdetails founder Pedro Alves is a high-profile member of Pentaho's open-source community and he will take on the role of community senior vice president at Pentaho.

Pentaho and Webdetails, both privately held companies, did not disclose terms of the acquisition.

PUBLISHED APRIL 22, 2013