Open-source database company EnterpriseDB is expanding its sales office in London, part of a move by the company to try to grow its business worldwide.

EnterpriseDB opened a development center in Oxford, England, in April 2006 and had a small sales team in London, said Simon Riggs [cq], senior database architect. The company now plans to hire additional sales staff and start doing marketing activities from London, he said.

Earlier this month the company said it had opened a regional headquarters in Hong Kong and hired a new regional manager, as part of an effort to expand in the Asia Pacific region.

EnterpriseDB's Advance Server 8.1 is a relational database built on the open-source PostgreSQL software. The company has been targeting Oracle users in particular, designing its product to run Oracle applications natively and creating migration tools so users can switch easily.

"They happen to be the industry incumbent at present," Riggs said. "The EnterpriseDB product has a very good compatibility with Oracle. People only want to change their database when they can migrate easily."

Big customers have shied from EnterpriseDB in the past for fear that it wasn't an established company. The company claims it is now attracting big customers looking to reduce their software licensing costs.

EnterpriseDB competes with open-source database market leader MySQL. The companies offer a version of their software for free and also charge for maintenance and support services. EnterpriseDB announced new pricing and support options last week.

EnterpriseDB was founded in 2004. It is based in Iselin, New Jersey, and has about 130 employees. The private company closed $20 million in new investment in August 2006 lead by Fidelity Ventures.