OpTech and Ingres Answer the Call for Open Source in Government
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May 18, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Deniella Ortiz-Lalain ~ 313-962-9000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Partnership Provides Government Agencies a Way to Cut Costs and Ensure Open Access to Information
DETROIT, Michigan — May 18, 2010 — OpTech, a leading technology and consulting business organization, and Ingres Corporation, the leading open source database management company and pioneer of the New Economics of IT, announced that the companies have entered into a strategic reseller agreement to bring open source solutions to government agencies across North America. As part of the agreement OpTech, a systems integrator (SI), will promote Ingres Database, the leading open source database that helps organizations develop and manage business critical applications at an affordable cost, and encourage migrations to Ingres Database from Oracle and Sybase IQ. The Ingres partner program offers ISVs and SIs the opportunity to innovate and profit, while building a loyal and satisfied customer base.
“Open source has brought choice and savings to the private sector. Many governments have turned to open source as an alternative to big software as a way to cut costs while improving security, collaboration, and transparency,” said Chip Nickolett, senior director, sales and services, Ingres. “Our partnership with OpTech will help further our desire and belief that expanding open source further into governments around the world is the right thing to do. For government agencies today, cost savings has never been more vital. Taxpayers care about how their money is spent, and open source allows government agencies a way to meet the demand of its constituents while saving millions of dollars.”
OpTech, LLC provides a wide-range of professional and technical services that support the development and implementation of new systems, as well as the ongoing operational support and maintenance of systems on a variety of platforms. OpTech is a GSA Contract Holder and maintains an SBA 8(a) status. The company’s focus is on providing high-quality services that are cost-effective and forward looking. OpTech believes that the value proposition of open source software is consistent with their goals and ultimately helps them deliver greater value to their customers.
”We are pleased to join forces with Ingres, the only open-source DBMS for mission-critical application recommended by Gartner, to offer governments a low cost and high performance alternative to proprietary software,” said Ronia Kruse, CEO, OpTech. “Ingres Database provides easy migration for business critical workloads from proprietary databases such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Sybase and we look forward to working with Ingres to ensure a smooth transition for anyone considering migration to open source solutions today.”
Open source has gained momentum in governments around the world in recent years. From Vietnam to Hungary, governments are looking to open source for cost-savings more than ever before. For example, the UK Government strengthened its commitment to open source technology in January of this year with key changes to the procurement process. The UK Government will now require suppliers to provide evidence of consideration of open source solutions during procurement process. If this evidence is not provided, bidders are likely to be disqualified from the procurement.
In the US, open source initiatives such as the transparency and open government memo, Whitehouse.gov’s move to open source, and the Department of Defense (DOD) open source memo calling for open source products to be given equal footing with commercial offerings have all put the spotlight on and encouraged the use of open source in government.
Ingres is a part of this movement with its participation in Open Source for America where Ingres CEO Roger Burkhardt serves on the board of advisors. Launched in 2009, the organization now has more than 1,600 members and recently published a series of guidelines for essential elements that belong in every open source government plan.
“Ingres, Open Source for America, and many of our open source partners are committed to helping governments understand the benefits of adopting open source in their IT infrastructure,” said Roger Burkhardt, CEO, Ingres. “Our partnership with OpTech will help us further this goal. While we are certainly making the benefits of open source known, we’ve still got a long way to go in terms of global awareness of this superior, cost saving technology.”
About OpTech
OpTech, LLC amplifies client success through enterprise-wide best values in business solutions that optimize people, process and technology. Founded in 1999, OpTech delivers superior competitive advantage to government (Federal, State and County) and commercial clients in finance, insurance, utilities, manufacturing and healthcare sectors. OpTech is GSA Schedule 70 certified with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan and offices in Washington, DC and Honolulu, HI. For more information please visit our website at www.optechus.com.
About Ingres Corporation
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.
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