May 29, 2009, 12:33 PM — Open source database company Ingres has released a pre-bundled software stack for development teams within enterprises. The stack, which pulls together Ingres Database with Red Hat's JBoss Developer Studio and JBoss Enterprise Application Platform, has been designed to speed up implementation of enterprise apps and aid the migration from proprietary software.
Despite the open source pedigree of the companies involved in the stack, the inspiration came from the proprietary world. "Customers told us that they like the way that open source was cheaper but they also wanted something that would make it easier for them to build apps," said Ketan Karia, Ingres's senior vice president for marketing. "We decided to mirror what the proprietary software vendors like Oracle and Microsoft were doing as the customers wanted the ease of use.
The Ingres Development Stack for JBoss will allow Java developers to build enterprise applications, with the middleware and database features needed to support those applications. All the components have been pre-configured to work together so that developers will be able to start coding immediately.
Business applications built using the stack will include database features most required in an enterprise, such as hot back-up, active-passive high availability, on-line table and index reorganisation, security auditing, database partitioning, and parallel query execution, among several other business-critical features that come with Ingres.
Karia said that open source was beginning to be widely accepted in businesses but CIOs still had concerns about the costs of migration. "When we get called to the table these days - and we get called to the table more often these days because of the cost savings - CIOs want to know three things: is it viable, what are the risks and how can you make it easy for me?"
He said that companies are very keen to reduce the costs of Oracle, Sybase or Informix licences but were very circumspect about the way that they did it. "Even if Ingres is cheaper, the customer will often take the more expensive option as it's less risky."
Analysts have give the development the thumbs-up. "With this development stack, Ingres has built a solution that pushes even deeper into the enterprise," said Mike Thompson, BPM Practice Director at Butler Group. "In the past, open source would be used at the development stages and then the code would be transitioned into a proprietary software offering. As a Red Hat partner, Ingres is delivering a sturdy commercial open source offering that helps make open source inside the enterprise a reality."
