Technical Information Systems to MySQL
ROME, Italy – May 2nd, 2006 – MySQL AB, the developer of the world’s most
popular open source database, today announced that the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has selected MySQL as its open
source server-side database standard.
Founded in 1945 and with more than 3,700 staff members, FAO’s mandate is to
raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the
lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world
economy. Achieving food security for all is at the heart of FAO’s efforts.
With headquarters in Rome and 74 country offices around the world, FAO
provides the kind of behind-the-scenes assistance and sustainable solutions
that help people and nations help themselves.
Key activities of the FAO include putting information within reach, sharing
policy expertise, and bringing knowledge to the field. Over 200 database
systems are used to collect, analyze and disseminate knowledge and data that
aid development of the member countries. Until now, almost all systems have
been based on Oracle, but FAO recognized that the inclusion of open source
software solutions could help the Organization better accomplish its mandate
and objectives.
“One of the key requirements for our technical information systems is that
they must be very easily available and accessible by the member countries as
well as easy to set-up and maintain,” said Kurt Vertucci, Senior Officer, IT
Governance for FAO. “We cannot dictate to countries what their
infrastructure should be. Therefore, in addition to requiring very flexible
licensing, these systems need to be portable and based on open standards.”
After evaluating PostgreSQL and MySQL as possible alternatives, FAO selected
MySQL as its open source database standard.
“With the release of MySQL 5.0 and its new features — including stored
procedures, triggers and views — the reasons why we were looking at
PostgreSQL no longer existed,” continued Vertucci. “MySQL proved to be
easier to set up, easier to manage and has become a widely-deployed standard
in the developing countries, helping governments to achieve significant
costs savings, without sacrificing database speed and power.”
To help the FAO IT team to migrate and implement their new open source
database, the MySQL professional services organization delivered a
comprehensive mentoring program including training, consulting and workshops
to enable the agency to learn best practices and to initially configure the
systems according to their specific needs. FAO has also subscribed to the
MySQL Network subscription offering, which includes certified software,
production support and proactive advisor services.
Vertucci explained, “MySQL is helping us to accomplish our mandate in terms
of information dissemination and capacity building while achieving
significant internal cost efficiencies. We are planning to migrate up to 80
percent of our Technical Information Systems to MySQL.”
Richard Mason, MySQL AB’s vice president of EMEA, said, “We are delighted
and proud to be able to help FAO to be more effective and do even more to
address global hunger. Open source software like MySQL offers an
opportunity for developing countries throughout the world to learn and take
advantage of advanced IT technology at a fraction of the cost of traditional
proprietary systems.”
About MySQL
MySQL AB develops and supports a family of high performance, affordable
database products — including MySQL Network, a comprehensive set of
certified software and premium support services. The company’s flagship
product is the MySQL Server, the world’s most popular open source database,
with more than 10 million active installations. Many of the world’s largest
organizations, including Yahoo!, Alcatel, The Associated Press, Suzuki and
NASA are realizing significant cost savings by using MySQL to power
high-volume Web sites, business-critical enterprise applications and
packaged software. With headquarters in Sweden and the United States — and
operations around the world — MySQL AB supports both open source values and
corporate customers’ needs in a profitable, sustainable business. For more
information about MySQL, please visit www.mysql.com.
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Link: mysql.com
