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OPEN SOURCE: The French PostgreSQL Cross-Enterprise Work Group is Growing

NOTE : This page is a translation of the original page in French.

Created by several French companies using the PostgreSQL RDBMS, The PostgreSQL Cross-Enterprise is committed to facilitating knowledge sharing, contributing to the adoption and improvement of PostgreSQL

PARIS, December 6, 2017

At the Open Source Summit Paris 2017, the PostgreSQL Working Group (“Groupe de Travail Inter-Entreprise” or “PGGTIE” in French) unveils its support plan for companies that are starting to think about the adoption and use of PostgreSQL as a replacement for or in addition to their historical database management system. At the end of 2016, several French companies (institutional players, members of the CAC40, administrations or start-ups …), decided to join in a group to exchange, share and contribute. The members of the Work Group are looking to take back control of their IT assets. Air France, Carrefour, CASDEN, CNES, EDF, GIE AGORA (MSA), ISOCEL (Leclerc), MAIF, Météo France, the Ministry of National Education, PeopleDoc, SNCF, Societe Generale and Tokheim Services Groupe.

In a context of growing dissatisfaction with the commercial practices of some publishers (1), the use of proprietary software is likely to be redesigned because of the risks it represents. While digital technologies spread across all industries, the variations in volume conditions, bandwidth, computing power, and users can significantly influence the technology bill when the pricing model is indexed to consumption. Licenses created elsewhere in the context of a constraining technological context may be harmful in a changing contractual framework where the rules of the game sometimes evolve unilaterally. In the absence of another technique or inability to migrate, the use of technology may be unable to negotiate equitably with its supplier. Lack of major releases and concomitant support create an unfavorable context that may impact business continuity.

All of these reasons are driving more companies to come together to share best practices and consider together the sustainable alternatives to the choices that have been made in the past. Thus, members of the Work Groupe have the same goals : share feedback, help beginners to start, contribute to the sustainability and improvement of PostgreSQL, in the spirit of Free Software and Open Source, encourage the use and adoption of PostgreSQL, in particular by encouraging publishers to support this DBMS.

The Work Group organizes its workshops around through specific projects, whose interests are recognized by the group. To date, priorities are : PostgreSQL usage, high availability, migration, monitoring, and promotion. The Work Group also plans to collaborate with the PostgreSQL community and the PostgreSQL services companies to develop new essential features for Group members, the community and more generally all users. “Our approach is inspired by the principles that rule over free software development communities. “explains Simon Clavier, vice president of the PostgreSQLfr association and Work Group animator. “We have placed the Group under the banner of mutual assistance, there is a real dynamic of cooperation, friendly and caring. It is with enthusiasm that we will always welcome more companies to our approach and facilitate their adoption or use of PostgreSQL. ”

(1) CIGREF 03/07/2017 (En) "Degradation of relations between user companies and Oracle - press release (PDF)" (Fr) "Dégradation des relations entre les entreprises utilisatrices et Oracle" (2) Campaign for Clear Licensing (En) 06/01/2015 "Open letter: To Larry Ellison and the board of directors at Oracle"