MySQL AB, the developer of the world's most popular open source database, today announced that the Swedish National Police are implementing an enterprise-wide project for building all future IT systems on an open source software (OSS) infrastructure based upon Linux, MySQL and JBoss. Several existing systems are currently being migrated and all future projects will be developed on this OSS foundation.
"Our primary aims are to cut costs and reduce the risk of vendor lock-in while maintaining the high reliability and security inherent in police work," said Per-Ola Sjöswärd, Executive IT-strategist for the Swedish National Police. "Estimated savings are 50 percent compared to the proprietary solutions that we also investigated. Over time, it represents the cost of 400 fully-equipped police cars."
The national police's decision followed extensive calculation and internal testing to find sustainable alternatives. Supporting 25,000 employees, the organization was facing serious cost increases for its legacy proprietary applications.
"We have a commitment to our country's tax payers to find tools that yield the best performance-to-cost ratio for the long run," added Sjöswärd. "Open source software is mainstream today -- used by many of the world’s leading companies and organizations for critical systems due to its increased safety and flexibility. Implementing a standard OSS infrastructure running on lower-cost commodity hardware is simply the best option, according to our tests. We also like the concept of MySQL Enterprise's proactive advisory tools, as opposed to the traditional routines to call support when something breaks – the new approach actually reflects the proactive nature of police work quite well."
"The selection of MySQL Enterprise Unlimited by the Swedish National Police is a testament that IT decision makers in the most demanding organizations can leverage open source software to better accomplish their missions," said Richard Mason, MySQL AB's vice president of EMEA. "Our MySQL Enterprise Unlimited Offering is designed to make it simpler and more cost-effective for modern organizations to develop, deploy and manage their critical MySQL database applications."