Recently, global Advisory firm Deloitte launched the world’s most advanced public Data Visualization tool. Deloitte’s Open Source Compass (OSC) is intended to help C-suite leaders, Product Managers, and Software Engineers grasp the ever-expanding gap between Open Source technology development and its enterprise application. The new public Data Visualization tool provides insights to inform key business decisions based on developer’s talent, coding algorithms, and visualization techniques refined with AI, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Big Data Analytics, and the Internet of Things.

Deloitte OSC evaluates code commits and developer mindshare to better understand technology trends, guides exploration into relevant platforms and languages, and enables visibility into the developer talent landscape.

Insight-driven organizations rely on top-end Data Visualization tools to make informed decisions. Business Intelligence and Data Discovery technologies have been around for a while. However, AI and Computing platforms have eased and merged together to empower this emerging space to discover and deliver new analytic capabilities—including visualization, predictive intelligence, and customer experience. Leading companies are already moving up the data discovery learning curve, developing capabilities that will allow them to enhance performance through decisions backed by data. Deloitte is just one of them, having partnered with DevOps and AIOps platforms in recent times.

What is Deloitte’s Open Source Data Visualization Tool?

Every decision-making department in an organization relies on data to derive accurate and trust-worthy insights. Almost every organization has access to significant volume and a variety of data and analytics team are working harder 24/7 to become true partners to the business, by providing metrics, KPIs, forecasts, and other critical information to make decision-making easier. Data Visualization techniques have improved considerably with new programming languages and skillful talent coming together to decipher structured and unstructured data in a graphical form. Thanks to an expanding horizon in Business Intelligence, analytics tools, and cognitive technologies are increasingly adopted to leverage business data “to attain new insights that can influence a range of tactical and strategic decisions.”

Designed and developed by Deloitte, Datawheel, and Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI) Chair Cesar Hidalgo, OSC analyzes data from the largest open source development platform which brings together over 36 million developers from around the world. OSC visualizes the scale and reach of emerging technology domains — over 100 million repositories/projects — in areas including Blockchain, Machine Learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

But, Why Did Deloitte Leverage Open Source Domain?

For starters, open-source ecosystem has been a key contributor to developments in the field of Cloud and Containers, Machine Learning, and DevOps. According to Red Hat’s recent survey of leading IT professionals and business leaders, today Enterprise Open Source technology is leveraged in areas that have been historically known to deploy only proprietary applications.

These areas are:

• Website Development
• Big Data Analytics
• Mobile App Development
• Physical Robotics
• Blockchain, Crypto, and AI
• Test Analytics
• Security and Risk Analysis
• Cloud and Databases
• Serverless Computing and Quantum Computing

Ragu Gurumurthy, Global Chief Innovation Officer for Deloitte Consulting LLP, explains –

“Open Source Compass can address different organizational needs for different types of users based on their priorities. A CTO could explore the latest project developments in machine learning to help drive experimentation, while a learning and development leader can find the most popular programming language for robotics that could then be taught as a new skill in an internal course offering.”

Gordon Haff, Author of How Open Source Ate Software and Technology Evangelist at Red Hat, states –

“Open source is increasingly used not because it’s cheaper—though it often is—but because it’s genuinely better software.”

Deloitte informs that open source software continues to gain traction in the enterprise as a powerful accelerator for Digital Transformation, value creation, and talent strategy; a complement to increasingly strategic Cloud providers, enterprise technology partners, and plans to modernize their legacy core technology stack. Open source also continues to deliver an invaluable foundation to startups with more limited resources.

Some of the key benefits of Deloitte’s new open-source analysis tool include:

• Exploring which specific open source projects are growing or stagnating in domains like Machine Learning.
• Identifying potential platforms for prototyping, experimentation, and scale innovation.
• Scouting for tech talent in specific technology domains and locations.
• Detecting and assessing technology risks.
• Understanding what programming languages are gaining or losing ground to inform training and recruitment.

At the time of this announcement, Bill Briggs, CTO at Deloitte Consulting LLP, stated –

“Open source software has been around since the early days of the internet and has incited a completely new kind of collaboration and productivity — especially in the realm of emerging technology.”

Bill added, “Deloitte’s Open Source Compass can help provide insights that allow organizations to be more deliberate in their approach to innovation while connecting to a pool of bourgeoning talent.”

Target Customer Base for Deloitte’s Public Data Visualization Tool

Open Source Compass will provide insights into 15 emergent technology domains, including Cybersecurity, Virtual/Augmented reality, Serverless Computing, and Machine Learning, to name a few. The site will offer a view of systemic trends on how the domains are evolving. The open-source platform will also explore geographic trends based on project development, authors and knowledge sharing across cities and countries. It will also track how certain programming languages are being used and how fast they are growing. Free and open to the public, the site enables users to query technology domains of interest, run their own comparisons, and share or download data.

Datawheel, an award-winning company specialized in the creation of Data Visualization solutions, designed and developed the platform.

Cesar Hidalgo said, “Making sense of large streams of data is one of the most pressing challenges of our day. In Open Source Compass, we used our latest technologies to create a platform that turns opaque and difficult to understand streams of data into simple and easy to understand visualizations.”

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