Ingres Corporation, the leading open source database management company
and pioneer of the New Economics of IT, and the Government of Jordan
announced today that they have joined forces to establish the first ever
agreement between an international company and a government to promote
and drive open source adoption. Ingres and the Ministry of Information
and Communications Technology of Jordan (MOICT) have entered into a
memorandum of understanding (MOU) to achieve the widespread use of
information technology and communication, particularly open source
technology from Ingres, throughout the local software infrastructure in
Jordan.
“Government agencies are always looking for the best way to quickly
deliver quality services for their citizens using advanced technologies,
but they also have an obligation to taxpayers to drive down their IT
procurement costs,” said Roger Burkhardt, CEO, Ingres. “The open source
model delivers cost savings through a subscription model that provides
excellent support with a cost that is aligned to the value delivered and
totally eliminates the expense of proprietary license fees. We applaud
the Government of Jordan as being the first to sign an agreement with an
open source company to ensure the adoption of open source across the
country. This is a huge first step and we hope to see other governments
follow Jordan’s lead by taking concrete actions to adopt open source to
accelerate innovation and reduce the taxpayers costs.”
Ingres understands that the university students of today are the chief
technology officers of tomorrow, so the objective of the MOU will begin
with the university system in Jordan, where students will have the
opportunity to learn about open source and begin working on open source
projects. With the help of Duroob, an Ingres partner in the region, open
source training on Ingres products will be provided in English, as well
as the local language.
In addition, as part of the MOU, Ingres will:
Organize “boot camps” to address technical requirements for the
community
Offer free training to certify individuals from the IT industry
Arrange executive calls to assist MOICT in understanding the
world-wide open source market
Provide software and support for a laboratory in one of Jordan’s
leading universities
Train a group of specialists to implement a specific government
service project
Support MOICT initiatives to promote open source through workshops,
academic initiatives, and local partner support
Promote Jordan as a hub for the open source technology in the region
As part of the agreement, the MOICT of Jordan will:
Ensure the Government of Jordan will promote open source adoption
within government departments
Assign IT resources to develop new functions for Ingres products with
the community version of Ingres Open Source Database to create a
community of developers
Confirm open source as an alternative for purchasing software in the
Government of Jordan
“We are pleased to promote the benefits of open source in our region and
our role in becoming the open source ‘hub’ for the Middle East,” said
Samer Shamayleh, director of strategic agreements, MOICT. “Our agreement
with Ingres will help us to raise awareness and create a general
understanding among government agency leaders about the value of open
source software. Open source allows IT systems to be built without
expensive up front investments in license fees and, with Ingres, without
compromising on critical needs for privacy, security, and reliability
that are crucial to our government agencies.”
Government and Open Source Around the World
While the Government of Jordan is the first to sign an official MOU
announcing its intention to work with an open source company in driving
adoption of open source solutions across the IT infrastructure, many
governments around the world announced initiatives in 2009 to do the
same.
United Kingdom. The UK Government beefed up its open source
policy, calling for positive actions toward the adoption of open
source. It not only covers open source, but also details the adoption
of open standards and the reusability of software across government.
It states 10 policy objectives and details 10 key actions that should
be taken throughout the UK government by CIOs and purchasing officers.
United States. A group of more than 70 IT vendors and academic
organizations announced the creation of a coalition, Open Source for
America (OSA), to promote the adoption of open-source software (OSS)
by the US federal government. OSA includes vendors such as Ingres, Red
Hat, and SugarCRM, along with universities with significant OSS
curriculum (including North Carolina State University and Oregon State
University). The OSA aims to help change policies and practices to
allow the federal government to better use open source, coordinate
communities to collaborate with the federal government on technology
requirements, and raise awareness and create understanding among
federal government leaders about the values and implications of OSS.
United States, Department of Defense (DoD). Recently, The
Department of Defense Deputy CIO Dave Wennergren signed and released a
“Clarifying Guidance on Open Source Software” memorandum that is
intended to clear up common misconceptions and make it easier for DoD
program managers to include open source software in their programs.
Its goals are to improve agility, eliminate lock in, and reduce cost.
Canada. The government of Canada has issued an official Request
For Information (RFI) on open source software to gather feedback and
public guidance to help shape procurement policies. The move is seen
as a prelude to broader adoption of free and open source software in
the Canadian government's IT infrastructure.
Hungary. In December 2009 Ingres and FreeSoft PLC, Hungary’s
leading service provider in the software development sector, announced
it had won the Hungarian government’s open source software tender that
has a four-year, $22.3 million budget. A consortium of seven companies
led by FreeSoft participated in winning the tender. As the open source
database of choice, Ingres will play an active role in all FreeSoft
projects.
Vietnam. The Vietnamese Government ordered all governmental
bodies to migrate to using 100 percent open source software products.
“We are pleased to see some of the world’s leading governments take a
role to promote and use open source technologies to deliver innovative,
lower cost services to their departments and citizens,” continues
Burkhardt. “Ingres and many of our open source partners are committed to
help governments understand the benefits of adopting open source in
their IT infrastructure. While we’ve come a long way, we’ve still got a
long way to go in terms of global awareness of this superior, cost
saving technology.”
For more information on how to contribute to Ingres or to support Open
Source for America, please visit www.ingres.com
or http://opensourceforamerica.org.
About Ingres
Ingres is the leading open source database management company. We are
the world’s second largest open source company and the pioneer of the
New Economics of IT, providing open source solutions at dramatically
reduced cost than proprietary software vendors. As a leader in the New
Economics of IT, Ingres delivers low cost and accelerated innovation to
more than 10,000 customers worldwide.
Ingres is a registered trademark of Ingres Corporation. All other
trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein
belong to their respective companies.
Ingres Corporation
Sherry Lowe, 650-587-5544
Corporate
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