Open source databases '60 per cent cheaper'

New estimations say Open source databases save enterprises up to 60 per cent over commercial products. Average savings on the total cost of ownership are about 50 per cent, according to Noel Yuhanna, a senior analyst at Forrester covering database management systems.

Open source databases such as Enterprise DB, Ingres and MySQL do not carry licence fees, and management tools tend to be less expensive than for commercial databases from Oracle, Microsoft and IBM.