Open-source players MySQL and Open-Xchange are teaming up so Open-Xchange can embed MySQL's database into its Linux-based collaboration server.

The two companies announced a partnership and support agreement Thursday to optimize the interaction between MySQL databases and Open-Xchange groupware functions. Open-Xchange customers won't have to pay extra for product support for MySQL, they said.

The partnership will result in more choice for customers in the way that they use the Open-Xchange server and can help users cut costs, according to Open-Xchange.

MySQL was interested in supporting the integration because an increasing number of companies are choosing open-source collaboration products, like Open-Xchange, instead of proprietary products, the database vendor said.

Open-Xchange competes with other open-source collaboration products from Scalix and Zimbra as well as established proprietary software including Microsoft's Exchange and IBM's Notes/Domino.

The move is typical of a growing wave of significant partnerships being struck between commercial open-source players designed to simplify the integration of their respective products.

For instance, back in June, open-source customer relationship management software vendor SugarCRM announced a relationship with open-source business intelligence company JasperSoft to allow SugarCRM users to generate reports using the co-developed JasperReports for the SugarCRM reporting engine.