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Sleepycat Software opened the doors of its first European office today in the United Kingdom. The office marks the company's official expansion into European markets and will provide sales, marketing and support of Sleepycat's Berkeley DB, Berkeley DB XML and Berkeley DB Java Edition database systems.
Sleepycat's family of open-source developer databases have a combined installed base of over 200 million deployments with clients including Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), AOL, Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), Motorola (NYSE: MOT) and Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA).
Adopting Open-Source Apps
Sleepycat said the establishment of its UK office is in response to increased demand by European companies for open-source software and local support services. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), companies in Western Europe will spend US$98 million on open-source software IT services in 2004, increasing expenditures by 233 percent over the next four years to US$228 million by 2008.
Adrian Jones, Managing Director of Sleepycat Europe, said in a statement, "Europeans appreciate the value of open-source software and welcome the security and support of working with Berkeley DB under a commercial license. From our office in the UK, we'll be able to better service to customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa."
Catering to Local Clients
Sleepycat's presence in Europe already includes customers such as Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERICY), Alcatel, Marconi, British Telecom, Microgen, and others.
The company's Berkeley DB is distributed under a dual license: An open-source license is available for open-source and internal use projects. A commercial licence is available for redistributing Berkeley DB within proprietary products.
Emeryville, California-based Sleepycat Software's new office is located at Coronation House, Guildford Road, Woking, Surrey. A third office is located in Massachusetts.
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