Ingres Corporation, an open source database management company, and the Government of Jordan announced today that they have joined forces 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.
The initiative is driven by the Jordanian government and particularly the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology, Steve Shine, Ingres executive vice president, worldwide operations, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "They, like every government, understand that they have got some accountability in terms of cost to taxpayers and they see that open source has matured a lot." While many governments have issued policies, the Jordanian government has actually gone "a substantial step further" because this is a specific agreement rather than a policy around open source, he points out. "It is a specific agreement with Ingres, and a partner of Ingres in the region called Duroob," Shine notes. The memorandum of understanding not only says the Jordanian government recognizes the commercial opportunity, but it also recognizes that there is an enormous opportunity for it to become in their words, "the hub of open source in the Middle East," Shine says.
"They have asked us and our partner to take two different views on building up their capabilities. One view-which is the longer term one-is to introduce Ingres into all the universities and academic institutions," explains Shine. "Looking out two to three years, that means that you have a large base of skills on the market, which I think is very forward-thinking." And, on a more immediate basis, the Government of Jordan and the companies have set up an academy, which is training experienced database professionals in the Jordanian market because there are immediate project opportunities that it wants to move on with. With the help of Duroob, open source training on Ingres products will be provided in English, as well as the local language.
According to Shine, Ingres was chosen by the Jordanian government for this initiative because "one, we are open source; and two, they recognize that to get broadband uses of open source in something like government projects you need to make sure that the basics of security for privacy, as well as scalability and performance, and those types of aspects are there and in place. They've put us through the mill, and tested the product over several months now."
For more information on the MOU or on how to contribute to Ingres, go here.