Ingres Offers Open-Source Alternative To SharePoint

Ingres is challenging Microsoft's successful Office SharePoint Server and content management products from other vendors with a new open-source content management appliance based on software from Alfresco.

Ingres, best known for marketing its namesake open-source database software, said the new Ingres Icebreaker Enterprise Content Management Appliance is now available for download .

It's a gutsy move by Ingres, given SharePoint's widespread popularity among solution providers and customers. SharePoint is generating more than $1 billion in annual sales for Microsoft.

But Ingres is betting that in the current recession customers will be more receptive to considering an open-source alternative to established content management products. "We believe the days of predatory pricing practices by behemoth software companies are on the way out," said Ingres President and CEO Roger Burkhardt in a statement.

Icebreaker ECM incorporates Alfresco's open-source content management technology and utilizes Ingres' open-source database as a content repository. Ingres used application appliance development tools from rPath to assemble the Linux-based content management package.

With the ECM product, Ingres is taking the same approach it used to create the Ingres Icebreaker BI Appliance that combines the Ingres database with open-source business intelligence software from Jaspersoft.

Ingres said a number of channel partners are already working with the Icebreaker ECM product, including value-added software integrator Acxio and Ancud, a developer of portal, business process management and collaboration solutions.