EnterpriseDB, which recently completed its third round of funding, has announced what it will do with part of its $10 million in new money. It is launching its first partner program, called “Blade Partners,” and is coming out of the gate with 16 vendors signed up. Notably, the program goes without charge and is indented to have an active go-to-m,arket, rather than simply certify interfaces element.

According to Bob Zurek, a veteran of Powersoft and Ascential, the idea behind the blade branding was that partner offerings should be pluggable. Of course, that could vary from generic ODBC/JDBC connectors for data access to deep API integration with the database. The program includes a certification option for interoperability. For instance, TruViso, which offers a streaming data engine, and Hyperbac Technologies, which performs database backup, have fairly deep integration, whereas the others focus on standard data access.

But more importantly, realizing that beyond the handful of giants that dominate the software industry, EnterpriseDB’s partner program is designed to be simple, with just a single tier. “I don't like the idea of gold, silver, or platinum tiers,” said Zurek who added the goal was to fit the partnership agreement onto a single page. The other distinctions are that the partner program goes beyond interoperability to include a go-to-market element where each partner commits to joint marketing and reselling. Not surprisingly, as EnterpriseDB is not a household name, it's not charging partners for membership in the program. “Exploiting and extracting money from small companies is not the right thing to do,” said Zurek.

The inaugural list includes a number of emerging Web 2.0 plays, such as Bungee Labs, which offer a hosted composite app development environment; Elastra, a provisioning tool for SnapLogic, which offers a visual integration tool for connecting to data services over the web; WaveMaker, a company founded by several principals of the Dojo project that provides 4GL-like capabilities for visually fleshing out database queries; JackBe, which provides data-driven enterprise mashup tooling; Nexaweb, which provides a Web 2.0 application deployment environment that can spawn rich web apps from Java EE; JasperSoft, which provides open source BI reporting; MuleSource, which provides an open source ESB. Others in the program include Alpha Software, a survivor of the desktop database battles, whose product is aimed at SMBs; along with Concursive, Continuent, Optwize, Tableau Software, and Talend.

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