Microsoft partners with open source JasperSoft, Sourcesense

Microsoft and JasperSoft are working together to ensure that Jasper's business intelligence software suite runs well on the latest editions of Windows and SQL Server.

At the Open Source Business Conference at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Microsoft told ZDNet that the open source BI software will be optimized for Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, which were announced last month.

Apache, Xen and Zend are some of the open source companies that are optimizing for Microsoft's latest operating system server and database.

Open souce ISVs were a core part of the Windows Server 2008 launch, said Sam Ramji, Microsoft's director of open source and Linux strategy, at an OSBC panel.

Ramji told ZDNet on Monday that the announcement with JasperSoft is new but that the two companies have been working together for some time.

Microsoft also announced at OSBC a pact with Milan, Italy-based open source integrator Sourcesense to develop a new version of the Apache POI open source file format reader to edit and create Microsoft Office formats used in Word, Excel and powerpoint.

Apache POI support for Open XML is currently in development within the Apache Software Foundation. Microsoft said its first release is expected during the second quarter of 2008

Ramji said Microsoft has been stepping up efforts to attract open source ISVs to the Windows Server 2008 platform and on monday held an ISV day here. 10 month ago, in the same location, Microsoft held its first open source ISV program. "

The redmond, Wash.-based executive said the reception this year at OSBC has been a lot warmer than last year. "It was a challenging press climate" at that time," Ramji noted.