Ingres and Engineering Release New Analytical Appliance for the Business Intelligence Market

SpagoBI Analytical Appliance Now Available for Ingres Database

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. & ROME--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Ingres Corporation, the leading open source database management company and pioneer of the New Economics of IT, and Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A., the leading provider of infrastructure software in Italy, announced today the release of the SpagoBI Analytical Appliance, a new open source analytical appliance for the business intelligence (BI) market. The SpagoBI Analytical Appliance is available for download at OW2 Consortium Forge http://forge.ow2.org/projects/initiativebi/.

“However, it is also a solution that is continuously growing over time, with an increasing number of innovative features and a more and more user-friendly approach. This is demonstrated by the release of this new appliance, which enriches the wide range of opportunities within the OW2 BI Initiative.”

Today’s IT market demands user-friendly and highly-competitive solutions, available at a reduced cost. Software appliances are pre-configured solutions that include an operating system, middleware, and key applications which offer an immediate and cost-effective solution for the development of new projects.

The SpagoBI Analytical Appliance integrates SpagoBI, the only entirely open source suite covering all the analytical areas of business intelligence projects, Ingres Database, the leading open source database that helps organizations develop and manage business critical applications at an affordable cost, and SUSE® Linux Enterprise 11 from Novell®. The appliance offers a complete and preconfigured analytical environment, distributed as a virtual machine, and provides the reliability of an enterprise middleware while at the same time improving and simplifying the operating system setup. This allows users to begin new business intelligence processes at dramatically reduced build times.

The SpagoBI Analytical Appliance was developed through the cooperation of leading providers of open source solutions and through Engineering’s effort inside its SpagoWorld initiative www.spagoworld.org and the OW2 BI Initiative www.ow2.org/view/BusinessIntelligence/, managed by OW2 Consortium. This is the ideal community fostering the development of new cases of industrial cooperation. SpagoBI Analytical Appliance is available for download at the OW2 Consortium Forge http://forge.ow2.org/projects/initiativebi/.

Users can take advantage of a unique maintenance support service, guaranteeing high-quality replies and a single contact provider. This simplifies the services supply process, offering prompt solutions at reduced costs. Engineering, Ingres, and Novell jointly support the Appliance. Users seeking a simplified service model can subscribe to a single maintenance support, supplied by Engineering’s SpagoBI team. For more information on the appliance and support services please go to www.spagoworld.org.

“This is another example of open source companies working together not only in the community, but on enterprise solutions that can improve an organization’s overall business,” said Deb Woods, vice president of product management, Ingres. “The true power of software appliances is evident in that they reduce deployment times and save money. In fact, a recent IDC survey showed that 25 percent of the respondents are already using or evaluating software appliances today. It is a movement in the right direction and Ingres is pleased to be a key organization along with OW2, Engineering, and Novell, that is leading the way.”

“SpagoBI proves to be not only a complete and entirely open source business intelligence suite,” said Stefano Scamuzzo, technical manager and manager of SpagoBI’s international activities, Engineering. “However, it is also a solution that is continuously growing over time, with an increasing number of innovative features and a more and more user-friendly approach. This is demonstrated by the release of this new appliance, which enriches the wide range of opportunities within the OW2 BI Initiative.”

“The SpagoBI Analytical appliance is an excellent example of how an ISV can quickly build an appliance with SUSE Studio and get to market with a mission critical business intelligence solution that customizes an enterprise-class operating system and database seamlessly,” said Carlos Montero-Luque, vice president of business and product management, Novell. “By leveraging tools from the SUSE Appliance Program, Ingres and Engineering are delivering to their customers a fully-supported virtual appliance with a smaller footprint, enhanced performance, and improved end-user experience.”

“This announcement confirms the important role played by OW2 Consortium in supporting the development of new business opportunities for its members,” said Cédric Thomas, OW2 Consortium CEO. “We thank these companies for their cooperation in developing new open source enterprise solutions for the market today.”

About Engineering Group

Engineering Group is the major Italian player in IT design, outsourcing, product and consulting services on all vertical markets, with more than 6,300 people and 40 offices in Italy, Ireland, Belgium and Latin America. Engineering Group has one of the largest Research & Innovation departments, relying on 250 researchers. The Business Intelligence and Open Source Competence Center is part of the Research & Innovation Department. It manages various open source initiatives, such as the SpagoWorld Initiative, including the open source projects SpagoBI, Spagic, Spago4Q and Spago. Visit www.eng.it and www.spagoworld.org

Ingres Corporation

Ingres is the leading open source database management company. They are the world’s second largest open source company and the pioneer of the New Economics of IT, providing open source solutions at dramatically reduced cost than proprietary software vendors. As a leader in the New Economics of IT, Ingres delivers low cost and accelerated innovation to more than 10,000 customers worldwide. www.ingres.com

About OW2

Founded in January 2007, OW2 is an independent industry community dedicated to developing open source code infrastructure (middleware and generic applications) and to fostering a vibrant community and business ecosystem. The OW2 Consortium hosts some one hundred technology projects, including Acceleo, ASM, Bonita, eXo Platorm, Funambol, JOnAS, Lomboz, Orbeon Forms, PetALS, SpagoBI and XWiki. Visit www.ow2.org

Ingres is a registered trademark of Ingres Corporation. All other trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.