The open source database developer Great Bridge announced on 9
September that it would cease operations.
Founded by Landmark Communications to develop a commercial version
of the PostgreSQL open source database, Great Bridge lasted for
only 16 months.
Despite its short life, the company had developed a deep pool of
hacker talent to create its software code and was once identified
as one of the "25 Coolest Global Companies" by the US magazine,
Fortune.
Great Bridge officials that they did not believe that PostgreSQL
was doomed because of the commercial venture's collapse. "We remain
convinced that open source solutions - in particular the PostgreSQL
database - present compelling and viable alternatives for business
computing," said Frank Batten Jr, the chairman of Landmark
Communications and founder of Great Bridge.
Even so, "the board was not convinced that, given the current
economic climate, the company could generate revenues at a level to
meet the required expenses of the business within the company's
funding horizon," he said.
PostgreSQL, which adds object capabilities to standard SQL, was
originally developed as a teaching tool at the University of
California in 1984, and has been developed over the Internet since
1996.
In March 2000, Ned Lilly, Great Bridge's vice-president, had
expressed confidence in the potential of Postgres. "Everyone who is
involved feels really good about its prospects. It's not much of a
stretch for them to [think] there's a market opportunity here.
Oracle is monolithic, so it's not a leap to visualise [success].
The open source database wave is starting to crest."
Even at LinuxWorld in San Francisco in early September, the company
had a large booth and seemed to be going strong.
Confidence in the technology, however, wasn't enough to bolster
revenue. In July, Great Bridge sought additional investors or a
buyer, but was unable to get fresh funding. This finally prompted
the company's board to cease trading.
Bruce Momjian, a vice-president of database development at Great
Bridge, said: "We've lost the marketing muscle of Great Bridge,
which was huge." But he added that the closing would have a minimal
impact on PostgreSQL itself and that development would continue in
the open source community.
Though Great Bridge does not have an exact number of users, Momjian
said he got "calls from all over the world. I know that we've got
an active community of people in the thousands on our user lists."