The open source database market became far more interesting in early December last year as start-up Db4objects Inc became the latest vendor to target the embedded database market with an open source object database.
That followed the decision by India’s Daffodil Software Inc in November to release an open source version of its Java relational database. They both joined Sleepycat Software Inc’s Berkeley DB, and IBM Corp’s Cloudscape, which was released under an open source license in August 2004.
Pervasive’s latest offering is underpinned by the existing open source PostgreSQL object-relational database management system, based on POSTGRES, which was developed at the University of California at Berkeley Computer Science Department.
PostgreSQL is an open-source descendant of this original Berkeley code, and it has a liberal license that means that PostgreSQL can be used, modified, and distributed by anyone free of charge for any purpose – be it private, commercial, or academic.
Pervasive Software said that with its Pervasive PostgreSQL offering customers can now confidently adopt a superior open source database from a reputable source.
As the software industry continues to mature and commoditize, open source technology provides mainstream business users a powerful and affordable alternative to restrictive and expensive traditional software infrastructure, said David Sikora, president and CEO of Pervasive Software.
The company said Pervasive PostgreSQL includes enterprise-ready technology like views, triggers, stored procedures, and security, and is released under the BSD1 open source license. BSD licensed software can be used in commercial settings and also embedded within closed source applications.
While other open source databases focus on simply servicing high volume websites, Pervasive Postgres will offer formal support, a clear roadmap and technological enhancements designed to help reduce the costs and remove critical barriers facing open source adoption, the company maintained.
Pervasive said it will provide application migration for ISVs and end-users, training, administrator certification and related data management and integration software products.
