Dutch police goes open source

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The Dutch police are going for an open source solution. Today, Red Hat, the leader in open source solutions, announced that the Dutch Police cooperation “voorziening tot samenwerking Politie Nederland” (vtsPN) has selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5) and Red Hat Network (RHN) Satellite Server to manage the rollout of the Linux based systems, to make it easier, faster and more scalable.

The Dutch police has a force of sixty thousand people, divided into 25 regional forces and National Police (KLPD). The Police Cooperation (vtsPN) was established in 2006 for these forces. They support the police and other partners in the Public Safety Sector. One of the important tasks of the vtsPN are the ICT facilities, including a standardized IT architecture.

The choice of the police for 500 RHEL5 subscriptions and 2 RHN Satellite Servers follows a change in policy. The Dutch Police will select only open source solutions. “One trend we see in various government organizations is to reduce costs,” said Sandor Klein, general manager at Red Hat. This strategic policy change follows the political focus on open standards and open source software and the efforts of the NOiV.

“Red Hat Network Satellite Server is a simple management system platform for growing our Linux infrastructure. according to a police spokesperson.

The Dutch Police was criticized in earlier this year, because they asked for thirty thousand Windows-Based Terminals. Minister of Internal Affairs Guusje ter Horst promised that the police would do more for open source and open standards.

[via linuxmag: Original article in dutch]

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