Successful Red Hat Forum Benelux for EnterpriseDB

October 29, 2015

Red Hat recently hosted its annual Red Hat Forum Benelux in the Netherlands and EnterpriseDB (EDB) was one of the participating local partners. Mike Huseman, Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Business Development at EDB, delivered one of the keynote addresses. Huseman was able to highlight the long partnership EDB has enjoyed with Red Hat and the value EDB Postgres brings to a fully open stack with an enterprise-class database.

In all, more than 500 partners and developers attended Red Hat Forum Benelux. During the opening address, Dick Lans, country manager of Red Hat Benelux, made special mention of EDB, echoing Huseman as to how EDB complements Red Hat’s solutions. Other keynote speakers were Werner Knoblich, Senior Vice President and general manager of Red Hat EMEA, and Rakesh Kumar, Managing Vice President of Gartner.

Bi-modal IT
A central theme during the event was the stunning rise of digitization and the use of open source in organizations. Both Knoblich and Kumar discussed during their keynotes the need for bi-modal IT. According to them, companies need to realize that legacy IT, or Mode 1, still has its value, but that it needs to be complemented by so-called Mode 2 solutions. Or in other words: modern, open and agile technology that enables companies to innovate faster. Ignoring this development, they said, puts companies at risk of losing a lot of market share to younger and faster operating companies that focus on rapid delivery of new online services.

Open source databases
Our very own Mike Huseman gave an overview of EDB's offerings and the key role they play in reducing database spent to free up money for innovation by replacing traditional databases with open source. The audience was particularly interested in the extent of EDB's services as well and in use cases of companies that are transitioning from Oracle solutions to Postgres. Huseman made special mention of EDB as a strategic partner in helping develop migration plans, training and tools to migrate from Oracle. And he highlighted the importance of having supportive help in the form of EDB’s RemoteDBA service to help during the transition. (EDB’s booth was swarmed with attendees seeking more information following the talk!)

Executive People, a leading IT news outlet in the Netherlands, was on-site and did a video chat with the Red Hat executives and Huseman.

Local use cases
After the lunch break, the daylong event offered four tracks of Breakout Sessions, with both technical and business presentations. One highlight was the talk by Jan-Taeke Schuilenga, the IT Infrastructure Architect of DUO, a Dutch government agency that is investing heavily in transitioning to open source and EDB. Also Roy Reijnen, Senior Solution Advisor from the Dutch government contractor Comparex, delivered an on-point presentation as well about the value of open source. Reijnen gave the audience valuable pointers on how to argue the value of open source solutions for enterprise use. Comparex is one of the largest technology resellers in Europe.

In summary, the event was a great success, and we were especially happy to see such a large turnout of developers and partners that support the enterprise open source revolution.  For more information about how EDB can help your organization deploy EDB Postgres to reduce database spend and enable greater investment in innovation, please contact us directly for more information.

Jeannot Bos is Sales Director, Europe at EnterpriseDB.

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