IBM Contributes Database Software to the Apache Software Foundation; Increases Efforts to Drive Innovation Around Java Application Development

Business Wire, August 3, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO -- IBM and the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) today announced that IBM is contributing more than half-million lines of relational database code to the ASF. E[acute accent]IBM is offering "Derby," a copy of its current Cloudscape relational database product, to the ASF to spur more communal innovation for Java application development. By contributing the software to the open source community, IBM hopes to accelerate innovation around Java applications, which in turn will create new business opportunities based on a broad spectrum of applications, including those that use embedded databases and those for small businesses. E[acute accent]IBM has contributed the code to Apache under the ASF corporate contributor license grant. The project will initially be managed by the Apache Incubator, which will inspect the code to ensure that it conforms to the organization's standards for licensing and code integrity and will oversee the formation of the development community. Starting immediately, the ASF and IBM will begin working with the community to establish Derby as a leading, open source database offering. E[acute accent]Derby is a Java-based relational database with a two megabyte footprint that is fully embeddable and requires zero administration support. The software is key for developers, enabling them to easily build and deploy applications and workloads that do not require an enterprise-class database system. That represents approximately 30 percent of solutions, such as small web sites, point-of-sales systems, local registries and repositories and small departmental applications. E[acute accent]By making this contribution, IBM is enhancing Java development with a significant offering that gives developers and customers a new option for Java-based embedded database functionality. With today's news, IBM is reinforcing its commitment to the Java community, which is comprised of more than six million developers worldwide. Currently, IBM employs nearly 4,000 Java professionals and offers more than 100 Java-enabled products and solutions. E[acute accent]Today's news is a natural evolution of IBM's commitment to the open source community. Currently, IBM participates in and contributes to more than 150 open source projects, more than any other company. These projects include Linux, the Globus Alliance, Eclipse and an already established relationship with Apache. E[acute accent]Derby, by being contributed to the open source community by IBM, will benefit greatly from the collaborative development efforts of potentially thousands of open source developers. Derby is the next step in IBM's strategy to help businesses create, use, and innovate around database management systems. E[acute accent]IBM is also announcing support from more than a dozen business partners and Linux distributors such as Red Hat, Novell, SUSE, Turbolinux and Red Flag. Once Derby is formally approved by the ASF and accepted by the community, IBM plans to base its IBM Cloudscape offering on the same technology as the Apache code and market it commercially. E[acute accent]"By open sourcing Derby we hope to accelerate the development of Java-based applications and to drive innovation around Linux and Java communities," said Janet Perna, general manager, IBM Data Management Software. "We're excited to work with Apache and look forward to working with the community to create innovation around this unique database management offering." E[acute accent]"The Apache Software Foundation is pleased to help bring the Derby project to the open source community," said Greg Stein, Chairman of the Apache Software Foundation. "By accepting Derby into the incubator, we are taking a big step forward in providing a turnkey database solution to Java application developers." E[acute accent]"Recognizing the value of this contribution to the open source community, the Apache DB project is pleased to sponsor Derby's entrance into the Apache Incubator," said John McNally, chairman of the Apache DB Project.

E[acute accent]About Cloudscape

E[acute accent]Cloudscape is a Java-based, production-quality, fully-transactional relational database with a two megabyte footprint that is fully embeddable and requires zero database administration support. This allows all management to be controlled by the application. Cloudscape has rapidly gained a reputation for ease of use and reliability among IBM's development community. Today the software is embedded into more than 70 offerings within IBM's software portfolio of offerings and is a key part of IBM's Workplace offerings, WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Application Server. E[acute accent]Later this year, IBM plans to release a commercial version of Cloudscape to customers and business partners. The offering will be based on the same technology as the Apache code and updated as needed based on feedback from the development community. E[acute accent]Over the next few weeks, the open source code will be available for download from Apache.org. In the meantime, IBM will make available a binary copy of the Derby code from www.developerworks.com