Open-source BI (business intelligence) vendor Jaspersoft wants its software to become another arrow in the quiver for developers using commercial PaaS (platform-as-a-service) offerings.

Plenty of companies sell proprietary software: Microsoft, Apple and Oracle, for example. And many companies, such as Red Hat and IBM, make money by selling support, hosting or consulting for open-source software. But what's less known is that companies can release their software as open-source while also selling a commercial version of the same product.

Open-source BI (business intelligence) vendor Jaspersoft is joining the ranks of companies adding support for Apple's wildly popular iPad.

The options for open-source data warehousing and analytics grew on Tuesday, with a number of announcements from Infobright, Jaspersoft and Ingres.

Jaspersoft CEO and former Java development evangelist Brian Gentile has expressed concern over Oracle's stewardship of the programming language since it acquired Sun Microsystems saying it's a worry how the software giant is treating open source projects.

Business intelligence (BI) is frequently among the top prioroties for CIOs and finding the right software to do the job is always a challenge. Cloud-based software may be all the rage, but CIOs must still manage in-house information and make better use of it through analytics and reporting tools. The big four software companies have all made strategic investments in the BI space over recent years and the options have dimnished, but there are alternative tools popping up and snatching a lot of customers in the process. This installment of '5 open source things to watch' is all about BI that doesn't scar the annual report.