Case Study: Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) achieves over 98% data availability for earthquake and CTBT monitoring with Actian Ingres Database

Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) - Customer Case Study

The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), a German government geoscience center, serves as the national data center for CTBT monitoring and operates the ERMOS earthquake monitoring system. Charged with preserving seismic records dating back to 800 AD and maintaining metadata for more than 2 million events, BGR needed a highly available, scalable database that could deliver fast access and at least 98% uptime while being manageable by a small team.

BGR uses the Actian Ingres open source database for its stability, scalability, and license-free model; migration to Ingres was completed without data loss and improved flexibility for distributed access. The solution delivered robust, cost-effective operations—exceeding the 98% availability requirement, reducing administrative overhead, and benefiting from strong vendor and community support.

Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR)

Markus Dohmann

Geophysicist