The U.S. General Services Administration gave MySQL AB’s opensource database a stamp of approval by awarding a five-yearcontract that makes it easy for government customers to buy MySQLproducts, the company said Monday.
MySQL was added to the products and services available togovernment customers from Carahsoft Technology Corp., a governmentIT provider based in Reston, Virginia. The addition of the MySQLproducts is effective through Nov. 19, 2009.
MySQL is already used by U.S. government agencies including LosAlamos National Labs, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Geological Survey,NASA and the Department of Defense.
Some governments around the world have been turning toopen-source software as a way to reduce costs. China has beenparticularly aggressive in using open source software, partly toreduce its dependency on products from U.S. vendors.
MySQL database products have been added to a list of productsavailable to U.S. government agencies.