Govt of Jordan commits to Open Source

REDWOOD CITY, USA: Ingres Corporation, open source database management company and the Government of Jordan announced 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. 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,” added Burkhardt.

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.

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.”