Pervasive Software Joins Open Source Database Fray With PostgreSQL Support

Pervasive will bundle up its own install procedures and various JDBC/ODBC drivers with the database itself, said Lance Obermeyer, director of products for Pervasive, Austin, Texas.

PostgreSQL used to be aligned with a startup Great Bridge, which faded from view, and has been backed by Red Hat as well, which bundles PostgreSQL with its enterprise Linux distribution.

Starting in February, Pervasive will offer standard support for PostegreSQL for $1,999 per year, and premium support with round-the-clock coverage for $4,999 per year, Obermeyer said.

The company will continue to push its proprietary Pervasive.SQL for the embedded market, where it is already used in other ISV products such as Accpac, Platinum for Windows financial applications, as well as Maximizer CRM products, he said.

With PostgreSQL, Pervasive hopes to attack the more mainstream corporate market. In that space it will take on MySQL, the popular database that is offered in both commercial and open-source versions. Among the open-source crowd, PostgreSQL, downloadable from www.postgresql.org, is seen as a more feature-rich alternative to MySQL.

Developers are finalizing work on PostgreSQL version 8.0.0 and expect it to be available this week or next. That release will include bug fixes and fuller support for Windows which is expected to drop any time now. The database supports AIX, Linux, Solaris and Windows.

Meta Group analyst Charlie Garry said PostgreSQL hasn't set the world on fire, but holds the edge in functionality over MySQL.

"Pervasive clearly hopes to leverage its sales channel and database management in small and medium businesses, which are likely to be the first adopters of open source databases," he noted.

Forrester Research analyst Noel Yuhanna said PostgreSQL is in many ways comparable to commercial databases because of its long history, but to date has lacked the backing of a key vendor. "This is a good move to push adoption to the next level," he said.

Solution providers also say the market is starting to open up for open-source databases, a notion analysts back as well.

"We are absolutely seeing [adoption] at the edge and in the middle tier, although not many companies are adopting [open source technology for] their mission critical apps," Yohanna noted. "I candidly question whether people are running SAP, Siebel, Baan or PeopleSoft stuff atop open source."

Meta Group's Garry concurred, saying that mainstream adoption of open-source databases for such applications remains five years out.

In other database news, Oracle Monday announced Oracle Database Lite 10g for mobile deployment. The database, aimed at extending database reach from corporate data centers to mobile professionals, costs $100 per named user.