The US State Department, US Army, FAA and NASA are among the agencies that have adopted Postgres, meeting open source objectives while reducing costs

UNITED KINGDOM, London —July 24, 2013– Shrinking budgets and ongoing battles in Congress have prompted US government agencies to turn increasingly to open source database options like PostgreSQL, many with the help of EnterpriseDB, to slash database costs by as much as 80 percent, the company announced today. EnterpriseDB, the leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class PostgreSQL products and Oracle database compatibility solutions, now works with more than 40 federal agencies with deployments of PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB products.
 
Federal agencies using Postgres include the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of State, the Department of Labor and the US Army. The number of government agencies among the 2,000 organisations in EnterpriseDB’s customer base rose by 40% over the past year as chronic battles in Congress signaled that belt-tightening and deep cost cutting would become a long-term reality.

“EnterpriseDB slashes costs and reduces the risks inherent in migrating to a new database, and our government customers need our partnership to ensure success,” said Ed Boyajian, CEO of EnterpriseDB. “In this time of fiscal budget crisis, government IT leaders are becoming heroes by moving from costly commercial databases to lower cost open source options without sacrificing on performance requirements. It just makes good sense for everyone.”

Advancing Toward Open Source Goals
Many federal IT directors are actively seeking to increase their use of open source technologies to cut costs and stay up-to-date with evolving technology trends. Open source software has gained significant attention and promotion under the Obama Administration and agencies have been aggressively developing open source initiatives.

Government agencies are finding multiple benefits from adopting Postgres and working with EnterpriseDB, including:

A dramatic reduction in their database costs plus greater flexibility in negotiating licensing agreements and in structuring support and training packages that meet their specific needs.

A contribution toward meeting agency-wide or departmental open source objectives and the ability to demonstrate technology innovation.

“More and more agencies are deploying Open Source solutions and are migrating from costly proprietary software. EnterpriseDB is leading the way with cost savings and minimal risk in migrating to Postgres. The governments’ adoption of Postgres and EnterpriseDB is growing and will only continue due to their proven track record of success,” said Natalie Gregory, vice president of open source solutions at Carahsoft, which serves as EnterpriseDB’s Master Government Aggregator.

The US government, in fact, has a long history with Postgres. The original Postgres project, begun in the mid-1980s, was funded in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a division of the Department of Defense that funds advanced research. Since that time Postgres has become the most advanced open source database with a dedicated community of contributors ensuring high levels of quality and security with each release.

EnterpriseDB has integrated into the PostgreSQL open core a series of enhancements to meet the higher level of requirements from enterprise-class applications, including increased performance, strengthened security and tools for greater oversight and management. EnterpriseDB’s Postgres solutions are replacing Oracle or are being deployed in lieu of expanding Oracle at some of the world’s largest companies as well as federal agencies.