Ingres, an open source database management company has rolled out Database 9.3, the latest version of the company’s open source database product. Ingres Database 9.3 offers easy migration from MySQL and from proprietary databases such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Sybase.

The company said that the new product has a number of key features to help java application developers be more productive and is designed to help meet the demands of a growing partner community with Liferay certification.

Ingres claimed that in this release its has added features commonly used in applications written for MySQL and Oracle to enable a smooth migration. These features include improved accessibility of table procedures from within the query and the support of positional parameter notations that makes database procedure invocation more flexible.

In addition, the new database also provides support for pluggable authentication modules (PAM) which enables the database to support more authentication mechanisms than previous versions. PAM also makes it easier to support one program that supports multiple security services than the various operating-specific users’ authentication schemes. PAM also provides lower security exposure because the authorisation program can run either with no special privileges or with shadow group privileges.

Ingres continues to support the latest standards including open database connectivity (ODBC), Java Database Connectivity (JDBC), and .Net Data Provider. Ingres Database 9.3 adds the ability to automatically start multiple Data Access Servers to improve scalability in environments where large numbers of .Net and JDBC applications are connecting to Ingres, the company said.

Ingres added that the new database simplifies the setup of JDBC driver properties with the addition of the JDBC Driver Properties Generator. The utility runs automatically during installation but can also be run at any time.

Deb Woods, vice president of product management at Ingres, said: “As the fate of MySQL is currently in the hands of the European Commission, open source community developers and our global business customers and partners are seeking a more stable, reliable open source database. Ingres Database 9.3 is designed to meet their needs with an easy migration path to Ingres and we encourage anyone looking for an alternative to consider migration today.”