Jordan's Goal to Become the "Open Source Hub" for the Middle East in Line with other Worldwide Government Initiatives

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 Corporation

Ingres is a leading open source database management company. We are one of the largest open source companies in the world and the pioneer of the New Economics of IT, providing open source solutions at a dramatically reduced cost compared with 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.

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