NEWS FEATURE
Open Source leaders and laggers
by alex pullin
alex.pullin@iteuropa.com
This year’s Ingres partner Conference in historic prague gave
IT Europa the chance to speak to the key members of the
conference and partners to find out what was on their agenda, what
Open Source can offer now and just why the French and Dutch have
led while the UK has been slow to catch up...
A
t the two-day Ingres Partner Conference “90% of our end users are getting it through
in Prague, it was no surprise that Open a partner. Ingres Solutions focuses on three
Source (OS) management dominated main areas; application development, content
talks. As one of the companies to quickly embrace management and Business Intelligence (BI).”
and promote OS, Ingres used the conference to Mike Boyarski, Senior Product Partner at Ingres, French government in particular are leading Europe
clarify and inspire its partners to embrace the agrees that the two applications will soon come in OS adoption.”
possibilities this application could offer. Ingres says to dominate the industry. “Customers need to put Though OS has not yet been fully embraced
it is currently the second largest OS company, after their heads around what is useful for them. There by the European market, Rukash Kumar, VP of
Linux provider Red Hat. will come a time when all software vendors will Alliances at Ingres, believes that the high number
IT research and advisory company Gartner have OS and SaaS. We’re already there. We’re in of possibilities means it is only a matter of time
recently stated that Ingres was the company best a better position for when that model becomes before more partners are attracted. “Partners want
suited to carrying out OS, but as the Ingres team mainstream.” local people who can speak the language and are
were keen to explain, there is a myriad of ways Luminary Solutions was acquired late in 2007 based there. The more we put in, the more they
in which partners can benefit from OS, and they to offer more help to ISV and services partners, as get out. At the moment there is a lot of economic
consider that they are the people best placed to well as direct customers. Its co-head of services growth, but as cash can be limited so there can be
help them. for EMEA David Postle believes that there is an less infrastructure.”
As Roger Burkhardt, President and CEO at exciting future ahead for companies that choose to Kumar agrees with the idea that once one major
Ingres says: “We’ve been much quicker with our embrace SaaS. European company fully integrates OS, others
launch than with any other big players. That’s what “If they’re not already in the SaaS market, will soon follow. When asked why the UK market
the customers want. They don’t want to pay big partners are evaluating it, because it’s not just the seems to be less accepting of the changes, Kumar
licence fees up front without getting any use of it. technical reasons for going into it. It’s a flexible believes the situation will be getting better: “The
They want to know ‘what’s the best price for me?’. model for many partners for many customers, and UK is such an established market that it takes time
This is a customer-driven ICT model.” I can really see the market growing in a year or two. for change. The UK government hasn’t backed it as
As discussed as part of the news story (see page There is no market for traditional software.” overtly it as other countries like the Netherlands,
10), the licensing aspect is crucial to what Ingres is Naturally, Ingres is aware that some countries but there has been a lot of interest in the benefits
trying to imprint on its partners. Steve Shine, EVP have been slower to respond to OS, particularly of OS software.” www.ingres.com
of WorldWide sales and Services, agrees: “Open in Europe, where government response has been
OUR ANALYSIS
Source has no licence payment and a lot quicker varied. Ketan Karia, SVP of marketing at Ingres,
returns. In essence, at its most extreme, it’s free.” admits the hesitant response has been a surprise. With overall revenue growing 70% between
Burkhardt also corrected the idea that OS “In the last 25 years, innovations have usually July 2006 and 2007, and with new business up
and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) could not work happened somewhere within a European-based 100%, it’s an exciting time for Ingres. As long
together. “They are closely related. The SaaS model company. Britain is a lagger in OS adoption even as it maintains the support and loyalty of its
is all about prospects and the speed to market. The though the reasons are so compelling. I thought it 60+ partners, the future should be good, but it
advantage of both is that they can run on a tiny would be more widespread. The French, Dutch and needs to get the message out more strongly and
staff and can get started straight away.” Spanish have been the quickest to accept it. The further into the market.
16 18 apr 2008
It0807 - 16_ingres.indd 16 2008-04-16 10:58
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