"I really think that's where we call this business open source. This is where I think we're going to see the community evolve into what we call the community 2.0 version where it's recognising the roots of the individuals in the pre-existing open source community, but now it's expanding to include commercial entities.

"Ingres isn't trapped by our previous quarter's licence revenue the way Oracle might be. Our customers aren't trapped by that business model, we have the ability to allow them to take advantage of the evolving market where customers are looking for more efficient ways of having software developed, delivered and then really managed."

If you look three to five years into the future, where do you think the open source and database market will be and what part will Ingres play?

"The big change five years from now is that people will no longer be talking about open source. It's the same reason why people don't talk about e-commerce today. E-commerce is just commerce so we don't see the headlines anymore about e-commerce.

"Open source is going to see the same thing in five years. It will be simply an accepted part of the landscape. I believe it's the closed source vendors that will be getting the headlines. It will be: why does Oracle continue to have closed source? Why does Microsoft still insist on having closed source?

"I think open source will just be seen as a natural part of evolution. As a result, those companies that are started today will be seen as thought leaders not just in their particular market, but in where the IT industry is going.

"Today is the time for companies to start recognising the value of open source. So that five years from now they are in the right place. Just like 1997 and 1998 were the times when companies were recognising the importance of e-commerce."